No. 156

To Raise, Pare and Poach Breasts of Poultry and Game

Pour Lever, Parer et Pocher les Filets de Volaille et de Gibier

Cut off the pinions from a clean, singed chicken, split the breast skin from one end to the other in the center, open it so as to disclose the flesh, then detach the breasts with a small knife following the breast-bone, and leaving the minion fillets adhering to them, removing them later if not needed. Take these breasts one by one, lay them the smoothest side uppermost on a table, press them down with the left hand and slip the blade of a knife between the flesh and the skin, so as to remove the latter at one pull without breaking it. Beat the breasts lightly with a damp knife handle, trim them in round half hearts on one end, and pointed on the other; remove the inside nerve, and the fine skin from the minion fillet, beat these lightly and lay them on the inside surface of the breasts, if found necessary to enlarge them, but unless the breasts are very small, they are not added. They can be interlarded either with slices of truffle or tongue, by cutting five or six incisions across the minion-fillet and garnishing them with either of these. Proceed exactly in the same manner for breasts of game.

To Poach.—Place the breasts of poultry or game in a buttered sauteing pan; turn all the points toward the center and on them, place a sheet of buttered paper, put on the cover and set the pan in a slack oven leaving it in long enough to poach according to their size and quality.

← No. 155 To Mold Quenelles with a Spoon, Either Plain Elementary Methods No. 157 To Clean Currants, Malaga and Smyrna Raisins →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a butchery-and-cookery drill rather than a dish: Ranhofer is teaching you to lift the two breast fillets off a bird cleanly, shape them, and cook them gently in their own moisture. Everything downstream in the book's poultry chapter assumes you can do it.

What the parts are called nowThe "minion fillet" (filet mignon of poultry) is the tenderloin strip lying against the breastbone; the "inside nerve" is the white tendon running through it. "Pinions" are the wing tips and first joints. A trimmed breast prepared this way is what a modern kitchen calls a suprême.
A slack ovenSlack means low by our standards; conversions of the old terms vary, but somewhere in the region of 250-300F is the usual reading. The pan goes in covered and the breasts steam in butter rather than browning; if you hear sizzling or see the butter color, the oven is too hot.
The buttered paperThis is a cartouche. Cut parchment to the diameter of the pan, butter one side, and lay it directly on the meat so condensation drips back rather than running to the sides. Parchment stands in for the older buttered writing paper.
Timing, which the recipe leaves open"According to their size and quality" is all Ranhofer gives; you will need to judge by the piece, with small game fillets cooking faster than a large bird's. Poultry is done at 165F at the thickest point; a poached supreme held past that goes dry and stringy, so check early.
Turning the points to the centerThe recipe only says to turn all the points inward. The tapered ends are the thin part and would overcook first, which is the likeliest reason for gathering them together under the paper; keep the arrangement snug.
Beating with a damp knife handleA light flattening to even the thickness, not a cutlet pounding. Damp so the flesh does not tear or stick. The flat of a heavy knife or a small mallet under plastic does the same job.
Interlarding with truffle or tongueShallow slits are cut across the fillet and filled with thin rounds of black truffle or cured tongue, which show through the pale poached surface. Truffle at 1894 prices was ordinary garnish in a Delmonico's kitchen; thin-sliced dried mushroom or a dark ham reads similarly at a fraction of the cost.
YieldOne chicken gives two breasts and two minion fillets, generally served as two portions. This entry covers only the lifting, shaping and poaching; sauces and garnishes are treated elsewhere in the book.

A Little History

This is entry No. 156 in Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium of the food served at Delmonico's in New York, where Ranhofer was chef for over thirty years. The "Elementary Methods" section is essentially a professional apprentice's manual embedded in a cookbook: how to mold quenelles, how to clean currants, how to lift a breast without tearing the skin. Boneless poached breasts of poultry and game birds were a staple of the French service Ranhofer brought to America, since a pale, evenly shaped suprême is a blank surface for a named sauce, and much of the book's poultry chapter is a catalogue of such names. The technique of poaching under buttered paper in a covered pan has its own modest aim: cook gently, lose nothing, keep the flesh white.