No. 1826

Capon Legs with Truffles, Roast Capon

Cuisses de Chapon aux Truffes. Chapon Roti

Bone entirely six legs taken from medium-sized and very tender capons; remove carefully the sinews, then season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg; stuff them with quenelle forcemeat (No. 89), into which mix half as much small squares of foies-gras; sew them up and braise in a mirepoix and white wine stock (No. 419); moisten slowly, being most careful to baste frequently, and when done, withdraw the threads, glaze and dress the legs on the strained and skimmed stock. Serve separately a supreme sauce (No. 547), with sliced truffles added.

Roast Capon.—Stand the capon on the grate fitting in the roasting pan; for this see the plate in roasted sirloin of beef (Fig. 306); have the bird trussed for roasting (No. 179). The grater is used so that the meat does not lie in the dripping, this being the best way to attain perfect results in roasting, but attention must be paid to keep turning it over and basting frequently with the dripping fat; care must also be observed not to allow this fat to burn, and in order to avoid this pour a little hot water from time to time into the pan. After the capon is nicely done, withdraw untruss, and serve it on a very hot dish; drain off all the fat so that only the glaze remains in the pan, detach this with a clear gravy (No. 404), strain the gravy, remove the fat and pour a part of it over the capon, serving the remainder in a sauce-boat.

CHICKEN (Poulet).

← No. 1825 Capon a la Regence Capon & Pullet No. 1827 Chicken Breasts a la Chevreuse →

For the Modern Kitchen

Two preparations sit under one heading here: stuffed boned capon legs braised in stock, and a plain roast capon. Both assume a professional kitchen with numbered base preparations on hand, so the main work of translation is deciding what to substitute for the cross-references.

CaponA capon is a castrated cockerel, fattened to 6-9 lb with a high proportion of fat to breast. Almost no American supermarket carries them; a good butcher may order one, otherwise use a 5-6 lb roasting chicken and accept that the meat will be leaner and the legs smaller.
The grate is a rackRanhofer's "grate fitting in the roasting pan" is a roasting rack. His reasoning still holds: the bird lifted clear of the drippings browns rather than stews, and the splash of hot water added to the pan keeps the fond from scorching into bitterness.
Roasting temperatureThe original gives none, because it assumes a range whose heat the cook judged by hand. Roast at 425F for the first 20 minutes to set the skin, then 350F until the thickest part of the thigh reads 165-170F, roughly 15 minutes per pound total. Rest 15 minutes before carving.
The cross-referenced preparationsNo. 89 is a quenelle forcemeat of the kind standard in this book; No. 419 is a braising stock with mirepoix and white wine, No. 547 a supreme sauce (velouté finished with cream), No. 404 a clear gravy. Any modern equivalent works; the forcemeat is the only one that must be made fresh.
Boning the legsThis is the hinge of the first dish. The leg must come out as an intact pocket of skin and meat with the sinews pulled, or the stuffing escapes in the braise. Work from the inside with a small sharp knife, and truss with butcher's twine rather than sewing thread, which cuts into the meat.
Foie grasDiced foie gras folded into the forcemeat at half its volume, as written, is very rich by modern proportion; a quarter is plenty. Sale is restricted in some jurisdictions, and mousse de foie gras or a fine chicken-liver farce stands in acceptably.
TrufflesFresh black truffle is priced as a garnish here in a way no home cook will match. Preserved truffle in its own juice, sliced thin and added to the sauce off the heat, gives a fair account; truffle oil does not.
Braising liquid"Moisten slowly" means adding stock in stages so the legs are never submerged, then reducing what remains to a glaze. The original gives no time; boned legs will likely need something in the region of 40 minutes to an hour at a bare simmer, rather than the longer time a bone-in braise would need.
YieldSix stuffed legs serve six as a course. A 6 lb capon roasted serves six to eight.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer wrote The Epicurean (1894) out of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book reads like an inventory of what that kitchen could produce on demand — hence the dense numbered cross-references, which functioned as a working index rather than a narrative. Capon held a particular place in nineteenth-century restaurant cookery: caponizing produced a bird with more fat, finer grain and a larger carcass than an ordinary fowl, which recommended it for a formal roast and for elaborate garnished dishes. The practice fell away in the twentieth century as fast-growing broiler breeds gave much of the same tenderness without the surgery, and capons are now a specialty item at best. The two dishes are grouped here because both use capon; in the service of the period a rich composed entrée and a plain rôti would have appeared at different points in the sequence.