No. 1853

Chicken Fillets or Breasts a la Sadi-Carnot

Filets ou Ailes de Poulet a la Sadi-Carnot

To be made with twelve breasts. Fry a chopped shallot in butter keeping it quite colorless and add to it two tablespoonfuls of finely minced truffles, three tablespoonfuls of minced fresh mushrooms and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley; fry the whole for a few moments on the fire, then add a little chicken glaze (No. 398), season and let get partially cold before stirring in three raw egg-yolks. Remove the skin and epidermis from the breasts and cut five gashes on the top of the minion fillets; introduce in each gash a thin round of truffle half an inch in diameter form the fillets into rings and lay them in a buttered sautoir, filling their interiors with quenelle forcemeat (No. 89) and on top of this set a five-eighths of an inch round of truffle. Split the large fillets through their sides and fill them with the above preparation, then range them in a sautoir with clarified butter and lemon juice; saute, drain, garnish with favor frills (No. 10) and dress in a circle on half heart-shaped croutons of bread-crumbs fried in butter, cover with a tomato sauce (No. 549) and Bearnaise sauce (No. 433), mixed and garnish around the large fillets with the minion fillets, glazing the slices of truffles with meat glaze.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a stockpot already going and a truffle drawer at hand; the dish is really three preparations assembled at the last minute. Read it as a plated composition and it becomes manageable.

YieldTwelve breasts, dressed with their twelve minion fillets, would serve twelve as a course. Scaling down by thirds keeps the three egg yolks in whole numbers.
Minion filletThe filet mignon of a chicken is the small tenderloin strip lying under each breast. Ranhofer treats it as a separate garnish: gashed, studded with truffle, curled into a ring and filled with forcemeat.
"Epidermis"Not the skin but the thin translucent membrane and silverskin over the breast meat. It shrinks in the pan and pulls the fillet out of shape, so it has to come off.
Chicken glazeHis No. 398 is chicken stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. A tablespoon of good reduced stock, or a spoonful of commercial glace de volaille, does the job; the recipe calls only for "a little," and the filling is set chiefly by the egg yolks.
The hinge: cool before the yolksThe duxelles must be only warm when the three raw yolks go in. Stirred into a hot pan the yolks scramble and the filling breaks instead of setting inside the fillet as it cooks.
Quenelle forcemeatNo. 89 is a pounded forcemeat bound with panada, egg and cream, seasoned and sieved. A food processor stands in for the mortar; keep everything cold or the emulsion splits.
TrufflesTruffle was a costly luxury ingredient, and reached American kitchens largely preserved. Preserved truffle peelings or a small tinned truffle will give you the rounds; if you skip them, the dish loses its decoration but not its structure.
Cooking time"Saute" here means gentle cooking in clarified butter, turning once, until the stuffing is set and the meat reaches 165F at the center. Boned breasts of modern weight need roughly four to five minutes a side over moderate heat.
The sauceTomato sauce blended with Bearnaise is close kin to what is now called sauce Choron, though Choron proper is a Bearnaise finished with tomato puree rather than two finished sauces mixed. Combine off the heat and hold barely warm, or the Bearnaise will break.
Favor frillsHis No. 10 is a cut and curled paper frill, purely ornamental. Nothing is lost by omitting them.

A Little History

Sadi Carnot was President of the French Republic from 1887 until he was assassinated at Lyon in June 1894, and Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean was published in that same year, when Ranhofer was chef at Delmonico's in New York. Naming garnishes after heads of state, ambassadors and visiting celebrities was standard practice in the grand restaurant kitchen. The construction itself is pure late-nineteenth-century service a la russe -- boneless fillets stuffed with duxelles, ringed tenderloins piped with forcemeat, truffle studs, fried croutons and two sauces blended at the last moment -- food designed to arrive at the table already carved, arranged and unmistakably the work of a professional brigade rather than a household cook.