No. 1996

Pullet Garnished with Water-Cress—Roasted

Poularde Rotie au Cresson

Six to nine months old pullets are the most desirable ones especially when quite fat. Roasted poultry should be treated with extreme care, for the roast is the most essential part of a dinner and is partaken of by almost every one. Should the fowl not be barded, then it must be enveloped in a buttered paper and basted frequently while cooking, either with butter or else good poultry fat. Draw and singe a good pullet, truss it for roasting (No. 179) and place it on the spit or in the oven, although roasting on the spit is far the most preferable. When the pullet is nicely done dress and surround with water-cress, serving its own gravy strained and free of fat separately.

← No. 1995 Pullet with Ravioles Capon & Pullet No. 1997 Blanquette of Pullet with Mushrooms →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives almost no numbers here, on the assumption that the cook already knows how to roast a bird. The technique translates cleanly to a modern oven if you supply the temperatures and a thermometer.

What a pullet isA young hen under a year old; Ranhofer specifies six to nine months and prefers one that is quite fat. A standard supermarket roasting chicken is the closest equivalent; a labelled "roaster" of 5 lb or more will need longer and is a coarser bird.
Barding, and the buttered paperBarding means tying sheets of pork back fat or fatty bacon over the breast. If you skip it, the buttered paper stands in as a heat shield: parchment brushed with butter, laid over the breast and removed for the last 15 to 20 minutes to let the skin colour. Foil does the same job but browns less kindly.
TrussingThe cross-reference to No. 179 is Ranhofer's trussing instructions, not part of this page. Legs tied together and wings pinned to the body is enough; the point is a compact bird that cooks evenly.
Spit versus ovenHe states the preference but gives no reason; a turning bird does self-baste and takes radiant heat from the side. In a conventional oven, roast at 400°F, or 375°F convection — figures the book itself never gives — and baste frequently with butter or rendered poultry fat as he directs. A rotisserie attachment, if you have one, is closer to his intent.
Doneness"Nicely done" is left entirely to the cook's judgement here. Use 165°F in the thickest part of the thigh, away from bone; a bird of about 3½ lb gets there in roughly an hour. Rest it 15 minutes before carving.
The gravyHis "own gravy" is pan juice, not a thickened sauce — deglaze the roasting pan with a little stock, strain, and skim every trace of fat, since it is served in a sauceboat and any fat will show on the surface.
The water-cressRaw, and surrounding the bird as the text directs rather than heaped at one end. A few drops of lemon or vinegar is modern convention; Ranhofer specifies no dressing. Its peppery bitterness sets off the rich skin.
YieldA bird of this size serves about four. The recipe states the case itself: the roast "is the most essential part of a dinner and is partaken of by almost every one."

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is his attempt to set down the whole repertoire in a single volume — a vast body of numbered recipes, cross-referenced like an engineering manual. Poularde rôtie au cresson is the plainest thing in the poultry chapter and deliberately so: in the French service Ranhofer trained in, the roast was the pivot of the menu, the dish everyone at the table ate, and it was judged on the quality of the bird and the cook's attention rather than on any sauce. The bed of water-cress is the classic French garnish for a roast fowl; it survives on bistro menus still. Ranhofer's aside that spit-roasting is "far the most preferable" is a small period marker — by the 1890s the closed range had largely displaced the open hearth in American kitchens.