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Chickens in Shells
Cut the fillets of some chickens into scollops, put them in a fryingpan with a piece of butter and fry them lightly. Cook an equal quantity of truffles in Madeira wine and when done divide them the same size as the scollops. Mix these together with some reduced German sauce, grate finely some breadcrumb and fry in butter until brown. Fill eight shells with the chicken mixture, cover them with the fried breadcrumbs and put them for a few minutes in a moderately warm oven. Arrange the shells on a folded napkin or an ornamental dish-paper on a hot dish, garnish with fried parsley, and serve.
A coquille dish: cooked chicken and truffle bound in a rich sauce, crumbed and browned in scallop shells. Nearly everything hinges on the sauce, which the recipe names but does not explain.
- German sauceThis is sauce allemande — a veal or chicken velouté finished with egg yolks, cream and lemon. "Reduced" means simmered down until it coats a spoon heavily, thick enough to hold the chicken together in the shell rather than run out of it. A thin sauce ruins the dish.
- Fillets, scollopsThe fillets are the breasts; skinless boneless breast is the direct equivalent. "Scollops" here means escalopes — thin slices cut across the grain, roughly coin-sized, not the shellfish.
- Fry them lightlyThe slices are thin, so the pan stage is short; but the oven stage here is only a few minutes at moderate heat and will not finish raw meat, so cook the scollops through in the butter before they are mixed with the sauce. Take them off as soon as they are done, or they will be dry by the time the shells come out.
- Truffles in equal quantityAn equal volume of truffle to chicken was a statement of a hotel kitchen's budget, not a home cook's. A small amount of black truffle, or a good quantity of cremini or chestnut mushrooms sauteed dry and then simmered in Madeira, gives the same structure at a fraction of the cost.
- The oven"Moderately warm" is not defined in the book; treat it as a moderate oven, somewhere in the region of 325-350F. The filling is already cooked, so the shells go in only long enough to heat through and set the crumb, five to eight minutes.
- ShellsReal or ceramic scallop shells, or small gratin dishes of about half a cup each. Butter them, and set them on a baking sheet so they sit level.
- Fried parsleyFlat-leaf parsley sprigs, dried thoroughly, dropped into hot fat for a few seconds until they stop spitting and turn brittle and bright green. Wet parsley will spatter violently.
- YieldEight shells, so eight first-course portions. Figure on about a pound of breast meat and a generous cup of finished sauce.
Oscar Tschirky's book catalogues the repertoire of a large American hotel kitchen at the turn of the century, and that repertoire was French almost to the letter. Dishes served en coquille — in the shell — let a kitchen turn small quantities of expensive trimmings into an elegant plated course, which is why the Waldorf's chicken fillets, truffle and velouté end up here rather than in a pie. The name "German sauce" for sauce allemande is itself a period marker: it is one of the classical velouté derivatives codified in nineteenth-century French practice, and it is generally said to have been quietly renamed sauce blonde or parisienne in French kitchens during the First World War. Serving the shells on a folded napkin was common hotel presentation; the napkin is usually explained as keeping the hot shells from sliding on the platter.