No. 2026

Small Turkey a la Financiere—Larded

Petite Dinde Piquee a la Financiere

The turkey represented in Fig. 385, the recipe of which is given below, is simply dressed on a rice croustade foundation (Fig. 9a), cut an inch and a quarter thick. Prepare a financiere garnishing composed of whole truffles, mushroom heads, large cocks'-combs and four large chicken quenelles molded on buttered paper and decorated with truffles; keep them warm. Select a good, small fleshy turkey not too fat, break the breastbone in order to draw it out, and fill up the empty space with grated fat pork pounded with fresh truffle peelings; sew up the skin, truss it with the legs inside and lard the fillets and thighs with fine shreds of larding pork (No. 3, Fig. 52). Put the turkey in a small braziere lined with fragments of fat pork, roots and minced onions; moisten to half its height with good broth (No. 194a) and reduce the liquid quickly to half, finish cooking the turkey quite slowly while basting frequently; at the last moment allow it to brown nicely in the oven. Strain and skim the stock, reduce it to a half-glaze, incorporating into it slowly some good espagnole (No. 414) that is in the act of being reduced, adding at the same time a few spoonfuls of good dry white wine. Untruss the turkey, dress it on the foundation and surround it with the prepared garnishings dressed according to the illustration; glaze the truffles and pour a little of the sauce over the cocks'-combs and mushrooms. Serve the prepared sauce at the same time as the releve which is intended to be placed on the table.

← No. 2025 Wild Turkey a la Delagrange—Stuffed Turkey & Guinea Fowl No. 2027 Turkey a la Sartiges—Studded →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a stockpot always going and a larder of prepared garnishes; the dish is assembled from components rather than cooked in one pass. Read it as a braise-then-roast with a separate garnish and sauce, and decide in advance which of the classical elements you actually want.

The hinge: braise wet, finish dryThe bird is half-submerged in broth, the liquid reduced hard to concentrate it, then cooked gently to doneness and only browned at the end. Skipping the final dry heat leaves the larded breast pale and slack; Ranhofer gives no temperature, but a hot oven for the last few minutes does it.
Financière garnishFinanciere garnish -- A standard nineteenth-century assembly of truffles, mushroom caps, cocks' combs and quenelles; the classical version is bound with a Madeira-scented brown sauce, though Ranhofer's sauce here is espagnole with dry white wine. Cocks' combs require long blanching, peeling and simmering and are hard to obtain now, so the garnish is often built from truffle, mushroom and quenelles alone.
Quenelles on buttered paperForcemeat is piped or spooned into ovals on buttered parchment, then poached by floating the paper in barely trembling salted stock until the shapes release. Water at a boil will blow them apart.
BraziereA braisiere is a deep, close-fitting lidded pot, similar in function to a Dutch oven. Choose one only a little larger than the turkey or the broth will not reach halfway up the bird.
Larding pork and the breast stuffingFresh pork back fat, cut into fine lardoons and drawn through the meat with a larding needle; supermarket bacon is cured and smoked and will read as a different dish. The pounded fat pork and truffle peelings packed into the breast cavity are there to baste the meat from within once the breastbone is out.
Espagnole and half-glazeEspagnole is the brown mother sauce built on roux and brown stock; reduced with the strained braising liquor it becomes the demi-glace served alongside. A well-reduced brown turkey or veal stock, mounted with butter, gives the same effect without days of work.
Rice croustadeA firm cooked-rice base, moulded, chilled and cut about an inch and a quarter thick, used as a plinth to raise the bird on the platter. It is structural and largely decorative; a plain warmed platter serves if you are not staging the presentation.
Temperature and donenessRanhofer gives no times. Braise gently at around 325F and take the thigh to 165F, roughly two to two and a half hours for a small bird, then raise the heat to color.
Yield and courseServed as a relevé, the substantial course that follows the soup or fish in a long menu. A small turkey with the full garnish will serve eight to ten as a main course in a modern meal.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's for more than thirty years, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the restaurant's repertoire, and the numbered cross-references here to broth, espagnole and larding patterns are what make it a working system rather than a book of recipes. A la financiere, generally traced to early nineteenth-century French service, was among the most extravagant of the classical garnishes: truffles, cocks' combs and kidneys, quenelles and mushrooms in a Madeira brown sauce. The name is usually explained as an allusion to a financier's wealth, but that explanation is traditional rather than documented. Turkey had been a fixture of the American table since colonial times, but presenting one larded, boned at the breast, plinthed on a moulded rice croustade and ringed with financiere was Delmonico's way of pulling a domestic bird into the vocabulary of high French service.