No. 1998

Pullets a la Montmorency—Breasts

Filets de Poularde a la Montmorency

Fasten to a dish a plain or ring-shaped bottom covered with cooked paste (No. 131) or noodle paste (No. 142), having in its center a tin cup equally covered with ornamental pieces of paste, egg it all over and dry in the air. Pare the fillets of five small pullets, suppressing the superficial skin, remove the minion fillets and streak them with truffles, also suppress the pinion bones, trimming them into half hearts rounded on one end and pointed on the other. Place the minion fillets on the larger ones, both slightly bent; Range the fillets on the bottom of a sautoir with a layer of cold clarified butter, being careful to have them all lie in one direction, so that the pointed ends extend toward the center. With the cut up pullet carcasses, prepare a little chicken essence (No. 387) and when done and nicely seasoned, strain and skim off the fat and incorporate into it a few gills of good veloute (No. 415) in the act of being reduced. When this sauce is perfect and succulent, finish it with a few spoonfuls of good, raw cream and afterward a piece of fresh butter; keep it in a bain-marie till needed. Just when ready to serve, sprinkle the fillets over with salt and poach them lightly, drain and dress in a circle on the foundation prepared on the dish. Fill the center cup with a garnishing of peeled truffles cooked in Madeira; cover the fillets lightly with the sauce, serving the rest in a sauce-boat.

← No. 1997 Blanquette of Pullet with Mushrooms Capon & Pullet No. 1999 Pullet a la Montpensier—Minion Fillets →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A Delmonico's dressed dish: ten poached breast fillets arranged on a decorative pastry plinth with a truffle-filled cup at the center. The cooking itself is quick and simple; nearly all the work is in the butchery and the sauce.

The hinge: poach gently, brieflyThe fillets sit in cold clarified butter in a shallow pan and are cooked barely through — covered, over low heat, only a few minutes for a small breast. Ranhofer gives no time or temperature; standard modern guidance for poultry is 165F. He says "lightly" for good reason: pushed further, poached breast turns dry and fibrous and no amount of sauce recovers it.
Pullets, and how manyA pullet is a young hen, generally under a year; Ranhofer specifies small ones. Five give ten fillets plus ten minion fillets. Breast and tenderloin from modern supermarket chickens will approximate the meat, though the pieces will be larger; the point of five small birds was uniform, small, elegant pieces.
Minion filletsThe filet mignon of the bird is the tenderloin strip lying under the breast. Ranhofer removes it, larded it with slivers of truffle ("streak them"), then lays it back on the trimmed breast so the two cook as one bent piece.
Cross-referenced recipesNos. 131 and 142 are pastry doughs used here structurally rather than for eating — a cooked paste and a noodle paste, egged and air-dried to hold the shape. No. 387 is chicken essence (a reduced stock, made here from the carcasses), No. 415 is velouté, a white roux sauce built on veal or chicken stock.
GillsA gill is a half cup, so "a few gills" of velouté is roughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups going into the reducing essence. The finishing cream and butter are added off the boil.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow pan — a modern sauté pan or wide skillet. Laying the fillets all in one direction with the points inward keeps them uniform for dressing in a circle on the prepared base.
Bain-marieThe sauce is held in a bowl over hot, not boiling, water. Velouté finished with raw cream and butter will split or skin over if held on direct heat.
TrufflesPeeled truffles cooked in Madeira are the original garnish; Ranhofer does not say fresh or preserved. If they are out of reach, brown-braised small mushrooms or a Madeira-glazed mushroom garnish keeps the intent; truffle oil in the sauce does not.
If you skip the plinthThe pastry ring and cup are pure nineteenth-century table architecture. The dish works served flat: fillets in a ring on a warm platter, truffles heaped in the middle, sauce lightly over and the rest in a boat.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry is typical of its logic: a page of cross-references, a decorative base built from inedible pastry, and a sauce made from the bones of the very birds whose breasts are being served. The label "Montmorency" is traditionally associated with the town north of Paris known for its sour cherries, though the derivation is customary rather than documented, and Ranhofer attaches it here to a truffle garnish with no cherry in sight. What is consistent is the period's fixation on the breast: five young birds broken down for ten fillets, with the carcasses going into the essence.