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Timbale of Suckling Pig
Cut up half a small suckling pig into small pieces, and put them in a saucepan with a little mirepoix and white wine, and boil them. Take out the pieces of meat and let them cool, removing the bones, if any. Add a little calf's-foot jelly to the liquor and clarify it. Pack a large-sized timbale mould in ice, place poached eggs intermixed with sliced gherkins and slices of beet-root in the bottom and round the sides, dipping each into half-set jelly to keep them fixed in their places. Pour a thick layer of jelly at the bottom of the mould, and when it is set and firm, arrange the pieces of pig's meat, alternating with minced gherkins and whole capers, taking care to leave a hollow space in the center. Fill this cavity with almost cold but stiff liquid jelly and let it set firm. Turn the timbale out onto a dish, and serve with a little horseradish sauce in a sauceboat.
A cold moulded aspic of the grand-hotel kind, written for a kitchen with a stockpot, an ice chest and a pastry chef's patience. Everything hinges on the jelly: it must be strong enough to hold a tall mould upright and clear enough to see the pattern through.
- The hinge: gelatin strengthCalf's-foot jelly was homemade gelatin, and its setting power varied. Substitute unflavored powdered gelatin bloomed in the strained, degreased cooking liquor, using about one packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) per cup for a jelly firm enough to unmould and slice. A jelly that merely quivers will collapse the moment it leaves the tin.
- Suckling pigHalf a small suckling pig is several pounds of bone-in meat, a special order from a butcher and more than most tables need. A 3 lb piece of fresh pork shoulder or a pair of trotters plus shoulder gives the same gelatinous liquor at a workable scale; trotters in particular replace much of the calf's-foot function.
- MirepoixHere it means the classic aromatic base of diced carrot, onion and celery, sweated in a little fat, not the modern raw scatter. Add a bay leaf and a few peppercorns; the wine should be dry and white, and the meat is done when it pulls easily from the bone, roughly 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a bare simmer.
- ClarifyingChill and lift the fat, then clarify with an egg-white raft: whisk two lightly beaten whites into the cold liquor, bring it up slowly without stirring, hold ten minutes, and ladle through a cloth. Skipping this step leaves a cloudy jelly and the decoration disappears.
- Timbale mouldA deep straight-sided cylindrical mould, not the modern shallow baking dish. A 1 1/2 to 2 quart charlotte mould or a straight-sided metal bowl works. Packing in ice is only refrigeration; a cold fridge does the same job, though ice sets the layers faster if you are decorating in stages.
- The eggsPoached eggs sliced into a cold jelly are the weak point of the dish for modern serving. Poach them until the yolks are fully set, cool them in ice water, and keep the finished timbale refrigerated until the moment it goes to the table; an aspic left standing at room temperature is a good growth medium.
- Beet-root and gherkinsSlice the cooked beets thin, blot them dry and dip them in half-set jelly quickly, or they will bleed pink threads through the clear layers. Gherkins here are sour cornichons, not sweet pickles; drain them well for the same reason.
- UnmouldingDip the mould in warm water for five to eight seconds, no more, run a thin knife round the rim and invert onto a chilled platter. Overheating melts the outer decoration into a smear.
- Yield and serviceA 2 quart mould serves 10-12 as a cold buffet or luncheon course. The horseradish sauce is grated horseradish folded into lightly whipped cream with a little vinegar and salt, served cold alongside.
Oscar Tschirky, the Swiss-born maitre d'hotel whose name carried the Waldorf's kitchen into print in 1896, worked in an era when the cold table was where a hotel showed off. Elaborate aspics, chaud-froids and moulded timbales could be built hours ahead, carried whole to a sideboard and carved in front of guests, which suited both the banquet trade and the hotel's ice-house economics. Suckling pig itself is far older than the Waldorf, a festive roast across Europe and especially at Christmas and Easter, but treating it this way, boned, jellied and turned out with a pattern of egg and beet, is squarely nineteenth-century French service as American hotels adopted it. The calf's-foot jelly at the heart of the dish is a reminder that a clear jelly meant hours of simmering bones and a careful clarification, which is precisely why it read as luxury.