No. 1973

Pullet a la Demidoff

Poularde a la Demidoff

Draw a pullet through the side; crack the breastbone so as to be able to draw it out and fill the empty space with quenelle forcemeat (No. 89), containing cooked fine herbs (No. 385) and chopped truffles, sew up the skin underneath, also the side opening, and truss the pullet to be served as an entree (No. 178). Cover over with fat pork, and cook it for an hour and a half in some good mirepoix stock (No. 419). When done to perfection, drain, untruss, and dress it on a dish having a bottom of croustade rice fastened to it and surround with a garnishing dressed in groups composed of small truffle balls cut out with a three-eighths vegetablespoon, small balls from the red part of carrots, and small balls of white turnips, also clusters of fresh green peas cooked English style in an untinned pan. Cover the pullet with a little veloute sauce (No. 415) strained and reduced with the pullet stock, and finished with two spoonfuls of good raw cream, serving a sauce-boat of veloute sauce (No. 415) separately.

← No. 1972 Pullet a la Dame Blanche Capon & Pullet No. 1974 Pullet a la Leondise →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a larder of prepared stocks and forcemeats, so most of the work here is in the cross-references. Stripped down, this is a boned-breast pullet stuffed with truffled forcemeat, barded, braised in a rich vegetable stock, and served with turned root vegetables and a cream-finished veloute.

What a pullet isA young hen, under a year old and not yet in full lay, roughly 3 to 4 lb dressed. A supermarket roasting chicken of that weight is the closest thing; avoid anything over 5 lb, which will be too coarse for the forcemeat treatment.
Drawing through the sideThe bird is gutted through a slit in the flank rather than the vent, so the breast skin and the bird's shape stay intact; the breastbone is then cracked and drawn out, leaving a space that the forcemeat fills. Work from inside with a small knife and keep the skin unbroken, since it holds the stuffing, and sew both the underneath and the side opening as directed.
Quenelle forcemeatNo. 89 is Ranhofer's quenelle forcemeat, a pounded meat forcemeat bound with panada and egg; follow the cross-reference for its exact composition. A food processor gets close: cold chicken breast, egg white, salt, then heavy cream added slowly with the machine running, all kept very cold. Fold in the cooked fines herbes and chopped truffle by hand.
Cooked fine herbsNo. 385 is not raw chopped parsley; it is a cooked herb-and-aromatic preparation sweated in butter and cooked down dry. Cool it before use, otherwise the moisture loosens the forcemeat. Check the cross-reference for the exact mixture.
Mirepoix stock and fat porkNo. 419 is a braising liquid built on diced root vegetables and ham cooked in butter and moistened with stock and wine, not plain vegetables; check the cross-reference for the exact formula. "Fat pork" is barding fat or unsmoked fatback cut in sheets and tied over the breast; thin-sliced salt pork or fatty pancetta substitutes, but blanch it first if it is heavily salted.
The hour and a halfRanhofer gives no pot instructions beyond cooking in the mirepoix stock; a well-covered pot at a bare simmer is the safest reading for a bird carrying a solid weight of forcemeat. Judge by temperature rather than the clock: 165F at the thickest part of the thigh, and the same in the center of the stuffing, which is the part that lags.
The three-eighths vegetable spoonA parisienne cutter, what a modern kitchen calls a melon baller, in the 3/8-inch size. The carrot balls come from the outer red flesh only, discarding the paler core, which is why the recipe specifies "the red part."
The untinned panPeas cooked in bare copper turn brilliant green because copper ions bind the chlorophyll. It works, and it is why the instruction is there, but it puts dissolved copper into the food and is not worth doing. Boil the peas hard in well-salted water and shock them in ice water for nearly the same color.
Croustade rice and raw creamThe rice bottom is a socle, a stiff paste of overcooked rice pressed into a slab, used as a pedestal rather than eaten; skip it and dress the bird on the platter if you like. "Raw cream" means unpasteurized, simply meaning fresh rather than scalded or soured. Use heavy cream, stirred into the strained veloute off the heat so it does not break.
YieldFour to six as a main course, given the volume of forcemeat. Ranhofer intends it as one entree in a longer sequence, where it would stretch further.

A Little History

The Demidoffs were a Russian industrialist family ennobled in the eighteenth century whose wealth came from Urals ironworks, and who spent lavishly abroad; Anatole Demidoff, Prince of San Donato, kept house in Paris and Florence in the mid-1800s and is the figure usually credited when a dish carries the name. A garnish a la Demidoff is generally understood to mean turned or ball-cut root vegetables with truffle, which is exactly what appears here, and it survives most familiarly in the chicken preparation that uses the term. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for more than thirty years, collected the formula in The Epicurean (1894) among several dozen capon and pullet entrees, all built from the same numbered stocks, forcemeats and sauces at the front of the book. The Capon and Pullet section is a useful reminder of how finely nineteenth-century kitchens graded poultry: pullet, capon, fowl and chicken were four different ingredients with four different uses, distinctions that industrial broiler production has largely erased.