No. 1936

Ducklings' Fillets a la Perigueux

Filets de Canetons a la Perigueux

This entree is to be dressed on a wooden foundation covered with cooked or noodle paste (No. 142). Have a small pyramidal mold, smooth and well rounded, and poach in it a loaf of chicken or veal forcemeat mingled with an equal quantity of liver baking forcemeat (No. 64); keep this mold in water until needed. Cook six ducklings in a good mirepoix stock (No. 419), having only very little liquid, and when done drain them out to untruss; detach the two fillets from each breast retaining both skin and wing bones, then pare. Quickly unmold the small forcemeat loaf on the center of the paste-covered foundation; mask it over with veloute (No. 415), reduced with the duck stock, and dress the fillets in a detruncated circle around, that is the six fillets on the right side are to incline one way, while the six on the left the other. On the summit of the support, in the hollow formed by the points of the fillets, dress a tasteful cluster of small, round truffles peeled and cooked when required with Madeira sauce, and glazed over with a brush. Lightly cover over the fillets and the bottom of the dish with more of the same sauce, and send a sauce-boatful of it at the same time as the fillets.

← No. 1935 Ducklings' Fillets a la Macedoine or Green P Duck & Goose No. 1937 Duckling a la Rouennaise →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a composed banquet entrée from Ranhofer's Delmonico kitchen, built on a decorative base and assembled at the last minute. The hinge is timing: the forcemeat loaf, the pared fillets and the truffles all have to arrive hot at the same moment, because nothing in the assembly can be reheated once it is dressed.

The numbered cross-referencesThe Epicurean is a system of building blocks: No. 142 is noodle paste, No. 64 a gratin (liver) forcemeat, No. 419 mirepoix stock, No. 415 velouté. Without those pages the recipe is a diagram rather than instructions, so read it as an assembly plan and supply your own velouté, mirepoix and forcemeat.
The wooden foundationThis is a socle — a shaped wooden or bread plinth sheathed in paste purely to give the dish height on a buffet. It is not eaten. A modern cook can drop it entirely and dress the fillets on a warmed platter.
Duck breast donenessThe birds are cooked whole in mirepoix with, as the recipe specifies, only very little liquid, so this is closer to a braise or pot-roast than a simmer; either way the breast goes well past the point at which modern cooks stop. Rare-cooked duck breast is usually taken to around 130-135F and rested, and roasting the birds and carving the breasts would give the same twelve fillets in a condition closer to modern taste.
Paring the fillets"Pare" means trim each breast to a clean, even shape with the skin and the first wing bone left attached, so the twelve pieces match when circled on the dish. The trimmings belong in the stock.
Detruncated circleRanhofer's rendering of a French phrase for a truncated, open circle rather than a closed ring. Six fillets lean one way on the right and six the other on the left, their points meeting at the hollow at the top where the truffles sit.
The forcemeat loafChicken or veal forcemeat cut half-and-half with liver gratin forcemeat, poached in a smooth pyramidal mould in a water bath. Take it to about 160F at the centre and keep it warm in its water until the moment of unmoulding, or it will slump.
Truffles and the sauceThe name P rigueux denotes a truffled brown sauce, usually a reduction or demi-glace flavoured with Madeira and black truffle, though here the fillets are masked with reduced velout and the truffles cooked with Madeira sauce. Fresh P rigord truffle at winter prices is out of reach for most kitchens; preserved whole truffles or truffle juice added off the heat give a closer result than truffle oil, which reads as synthetic against a Madeira reduction.
YieldSix ducklings give twelve fillets — twelve servings as a formal entrée in a long menu, or six generous plates. Send extra sauce separately, as the original directs.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for more than thirty years, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of a grand-restaurant kitchen, and dishes like this one show what the format demanded: a hot entrée that could be carried into a dining room whole, standing tall on a socle, and carved or served in front of guests. À la Périgueux points to Périgord in southwestern France, the country of the black truffle and of forcemeats rich with poultry liver, and by the late nineteenth century the name had settled in professional kitchens as shorthand for a Madeira sauce carrying truffle. The elaborate architecture — wooden base, paste sheath, moulded forcemeat pyramid, glazed truffles brushed to a shine — belongs to the tradition of decorated service that Carême had codified earlier in the century and that survived in American hotel and restaurant cooking well into the 1900s before plated service made it obsolete.