No. 152

To Poach Quenelles, Small Timbales and Mousselines

Pour Pocher les Quenelles les Petites Timbales et les Mousselines

Quenelles.—Quenelles are poached by pouring hot (nearly boiling) water into a sautoire by the side of the quenelles, set the sautoire on the fire to bring the liquid to a boiling point, and at the first boil, cover the sautoire, remove it to the side of the range so that the water only quivers, and take out the quenelles with a skimmer as soon as they are firm. The length of time to poach quenelles depends upon their size; either ten or fifteen minutes. Dry them on a cloth before dressing.

Small Timbales.—Range the timbales in a sautoire; fifteen minutes before serving, fill it to half the height of the molds with boiling water, and set the sautoire on the fire; when the water is ready to boil, remove and place it in a slack oven for ten or fifteen minutes; after a lapse of ten minutes touch the forcemeat in the center, and if firm, take them out, let stand for a little and invert the molds into a cloth to drain off all the liquid. Unmold.

Mousselines.—Put these into a flat sautoire furnished with a perforated grater having the holes at regular spaces apart so that each one can receive a mold. The molds being rounded at the bottom, these holes are to keep them standing upright. Pour boiling water into the saucepan nearly sufficient to cover the height of the molds and stand it on the fire; when the water boils, remove and push it gently into a slack oven for ten for fifteen minutes, sufficient time to poach them slowly; they will be found done when touched in the center, they resist to the pressure of the finger, then take them from the water, stand them on one side to drain and unmold. If the oven be too hot the timbales rise, which must be avoided otherwise they lose their quality.

← No. 151 Small Puff Patties Elementary Methods No. 153 To Press Meats, Galantines, Breasts, Sweetbr →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a method rather than a dish: three ways to set a forcemeat in water without letting it boil. Everything else follows from that one restriction.

The hinge: never a rolling boilRanhofer brings the water to the boil once, then pulls the pan off the heat so it "only quivers" — roughly 170-180F. A forcemeat bound with egg and cream that boils will curdle, expand and go spongy, which is exactly the rising he warns against at the end.
SautoireA wide, straight-sided shallow pan — a modern sauté pan or a deep skillet. For the timbales and mousselines it is functioning as a bain-marie, so any roasting pan or baking dish that holds the molds upright will do.
"Slack oven"The coolest working oven of a coal range, about 250-300F. Set a modern oven to 275F; at 350F the custard-like forcemeat will puff and coarsen.
"Perforated grater"Read this as a perforated grate or trivet — a metal plate with regularly spaced holes that cradle the round-bottomed mousseline molds so they cannot tip. A folded kitchen towel or a wire rack in the pan serves the same purpose.
Pouring water beside the quenellesThe hot water goes in at the side of the pan, not over the top, so the pouring stream does not batter the shaped quenelles apart. Slide them in on a spoon and add liquid gently at the edge.
TimingsRanhofer allows either ten or fifteen minutes according to size; smaller quenelles will be firm well before the longer time. Test by touch, as he directs, rather than by clock -- firm and resistant in the center is the only reliable sign.
Draining and dryingBoth the quenelles and the unmolded timbales carry water that will thin any sauce. Blot the quenelles on a cloth; let the timbales stand a little, then invert the molds into a cloth to drain off the liquid before unmolding.
Yield and servingThe method assumes a forcemeat made elsewhere in the book; this page covers only the poaching. Quenelles appear in the book as garnish for soups and ragouts, timbales and mousselines as small molded dishes served with a sauce.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was written by Charles Ranhofer, for decades the chef of Delmonico's in New York, and its "Elementary Methods" section exists because he was codifying French professional practice for an American kitchen brigade. Quenelle is generally traced to the Alsatian and German Knödel, a dumpling, the word said to have entered French cookery through the eastern provinces; by Ranhofer's day it meant a fine pounded forcemeat of veal, poultry or fish, shaped with two spoons and poached. The mousseline is a forcemeat lightened with cream and often egg white, whose name borrows the fineness of muslin cloth and which is generally credited to the lighter, less flour-bound cooking of the later nineteenth century. All three depend on the same discovery that governs custard: protein set gently holds water, protein set at a boil squeezes it out, which is why a page in a professional manual is given over to nothing but the temperature of the poaching bath.