Chickens a la Montesquieu—Sauted

By observing the drawing for this entree the elegance of this new style of dressing can easily be perceived. On an entree dish one inch from the edge fasten a standing open work border made of cooked paste (Fig. 3), spreading it out slightly; brush this over with egg-yolks and dry it in the air. In the center of this border, fasten a wooden bottom to be covered with the same paste rolled out very thin. Singe three clean chickens, detach the legs, leaving on as much skin as possible, then lift off the large fillets with the pinions leaving the minion fillets adhere to the breasts, remove the skin from four of the large fillets, pare and lard with fine larding pork (No. 4, Fig. 52), range them in a sautoir lined with fat pork, salt and pour butter over. Detach the minion fillets from the breasts, trim four of them, cut five gashes on their top, into these place rounds of truffles, laying them in a buttered sautoir. Bone the legs, pare the meats evenly, salt and stuff them with a rather firm quenelle forcemeat (No. 89) into which mix some truffled Duxelle (No. 385); sew them up and range them in a sautoir, covering over with fat pork and basting with some stock (No. 194a); cook very slowly, then drain and let to get cold under the pressure of a light weight. With the remaining large fillets and the minion fillets prepare a little cream forcemeat (No. 75) and with it fill a small, plain pyramidical mold flat on top; poach this in a bain-marie for ten minutes; cut the stuffed legs in two and return them to the sautoir with their stock reduced to a half-glaze, heat up slowly while basting at the oven door; glaze the larded fillets in a hot oven and poach the streaked minion fillets. At the last moment unmold the crouton of forcemeat on the paste-covered dish; dress the legs around, one overlapping the other, pour over a little good reduced veloute sauce (No. 415), and then range the four large fillets intercalating them with the streaked fillets; on top of the pyramid insert a small skewer garnished with truffles (Fig. 11). Surround the border with a chain of round, peeled truffles cooked just when needed with glaze (No. 402) and Madeira and send with the entree a sauce-boatful of veloute sauce reduced with the truffle broth.