No. 2105

Breasts or Fillets of Pheasants with Truffles

Ailes ou Filets de Faisans aux Truffes

Raise the breasts from six pheasants; remove the minion fillets, pare the large ones into half hearts after suppressing the skin and lay them in a thickly buttered saute pan and cover over with melted butter; place the minion fillets in a smaller saute pan after removing the thin skin that covers them also the sinews; streak them by cutting six bias incisions on the surface and filling these with half circles of channeled truffles and finish by giving them the shape of a ring; cover over with very thin bards of fat pork or else buttered paper. Make a fumet (No. 397) with the parings and legs, suppressing the rump, and add to it carrots, onions and a garished bunch of parsley (No. 123), moisten with a pint of stock (No. 194a) and two gills of Madeira and let this come to a boil and continue the ebullition process very slowly for one hour and a half, strain through a napkin and separate it into two parts, reduce one of these to the consistency of a light glaze and to the other add as much veloute sauce (No. 415) that is being reduced. Escalop one pound of fine truffles, put them in a bain-marie with a little meat glaze (No. 402), Madeira and as much fine butter, close the receptacle well and keep hot for at least fifteen minutes. Just when prepared to serve, saute the pheasants breasts; finish cooking them in a slack oven and when the larger fillets are done drain off the butter, being careful to retain the glaze, detach this with a little Madeira and add some veloute sauce (No. 415) and fresh butter; dress the large fillets in a circle, cover with half of the above sauce and on the large ones lay the smaller ones, brush over with meat glaze (No. 402), pouring the truffles in the center; serve the other half of the sauce separately.

← No. 2104 Partridge with Sauerkraut Partridge, Pheasant & Grouse No. 2106 Salmis of Pheasant a la Lorenzo →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a stockpot already going and a numbered reference for every sauce; the dish itself is simple enough once the cross-references are resolved. It is a sauté of pheasant breast with a Madeira-fortified game sauce and truffles.

YieldSix pheasants give twelve large fillets and twelve minion fillets. The recipe names no number of servings; dressed as directed, one large fillet capped with one minion, it plates twelve. Breast weights vary considerably with the bird.
Minion filletsThe filet mignon of a bird is the small tenderloin lying under the breast. Pull the white sinew before shaping, or it will contract and buckle the ring.
Channeled trufflesChanneling is done with a small grooved knife, cutting a decorative furrow before slicing so each round has a fluted edge. Purely visual; plain slices cook identically. "Escalop" simply means slice thin.
TrufflesA pound of fresh black truffle is now a luxury few will match. The recipe specifies only 'fine truffles' -- presumably European black winter truffle; preserved truffles or a smaller quantity of fresh, stretched with a good truffle butter, is the practical reading.
BardsThin sheets of fat pork laid over the meat to keep it from drying. Buttered paper, which he offers as the alternative, does the same job; parchment is the modern equivalent.
MeasuresA gill is half a cup, so two gills of Madeira is one cup, against a pint of stock. Use a dry or medium Sercial-style Madeira, not a sweet cooking wine.
Slack ovenAround 275-300F. The breasts are started in butter on the stovetop and only finished through in the oven.
The hingePheasant breast is very lean and dries out quickly with overcooking. Food-safety guidance for poultry is 165F internal; cooks who prefer game birds less done accept a lower temperature at their own risk. Sauté, finish briefly, and rest; the long list of sauce work should all be done before the meat ever touches the pan.
The sauceThe fumet is a concentrated game stock from the parings and legs (rump discarded), split in two: one half reduced to a light glaze, the other combined with reducing veloute. The final brushing calls for meat glaze (No. 402). Any well-reduced brown game stock plus a light veloute will stand in.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the house style exactly: French technique, numbered cross-references so a cook could assemble the dish from the book alone, and an assumption that truffles come by the pound. Pheasant was a fashionable game bird in Gilded Age New York, and dishes of breast meat alone " to stock " signal the kind of kitchen that could afford to cook six birds to plate twelve fillets. The pairing of pheasant, Madeira and truffle is thoroughly nineteenth-century French haute cuisine; Madeira is often said to have held its place in professional kitchens long after it had faded as a table wine, prized for the depth it gave reduced sauces. Ranhofer's spellings are anglicized French throughout, and the recipe numbers in parentheses refer to other numbered recipes and preparations in the same volume, not to any external source.