No. 2245

Crepine of Chicken a la Turenne-Breasts

Crepine de Filets de Poulet a la Turenne

Pare and chop up finely half a pound of raw chicken fillets, and one pound of chopped fresh fat pork; season with an ounce of spiced salt (No. 168), and two tablespoonfuls of chopped truffles. Pound the chopped chicken, add to it the pork. Spread some pieces of "crepine" or caul fat on a napkin; divide half of the prepared forcemeat into inch and a half diameter balls, and lay on top of the crepine a fine slice of truffle, over this a forcemeat ball; flatten down to half, and place on top some minced mushrooms previously fried in butter with fine herbs, and on this lay another slice of truffle. Wrap the crepines into oval-shapes, and dip each in butter, then roll in bread-crumbs to broil over a slow fire; serve on a half-glaze sauce (No. 413) finished with mushroom essence (No. 392).

← No. 2244 Crepine of Brains Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2246 Crepine of Pigeons, Poivrade Sauce with Truf →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a crépinette: a seasoned forcemeat parcel wrapped in caul fat rather than stuffed into a casing. Ranhofer assumes a larder stocked with truffles, spiced salt and demi-glace, and a charcoal broiler you can run gently.

Caul fat is the whole pointCrépine is the lacy membrane from around a pig's stomach; it melts as it cooks, basting the parcel and holding it shut without string. Order it from a butcher, soak it in cool salted water to unfold it without tearing, and pat it dry before wrapping.
Spiced salt, No. 168Ranhofer's spiced salt is fine salt cut with pepper, nutmeg, thyme, bay, clove and similar, so an ounce is not an ounce of pure salt. Even so, an ounce against a pound and a half of meat is charcuterie-strength seasoning; fry a teaspoon of the mixture and taste before wrapping.
The fat-to-lean ratioTwo parts fresh fatback to one part chicken breast reads as extreme now but is what keeps a lean white forcemeat from drying out over live fire. If you want something closer to modern taste, equal weights works, and the parcels will still hold.
PoundingThe mortar work is to make the chicken tacky enough to bind. A food processor does it in seconds, but keep meat, fat and bowl refrigerator-cold and stop the moment the mixture comes together, or the fat smears and the crépinettes weep.
"Broil over a slow fire"A gentle broil means low, well-burnt-down coals or a grill kept deliberately cool, turning often; the crumbs and caul fat will scorch over anything fierce. Cook to 165F at the center.
Truffles and mushroom essenceTwo tablespoons of chopped truffle plus two slices per parcel is generous by any standard; jarred black winter truffle or truffle peelings are the practical option. Mushroom essence (No. 392) is simply mushroom cooking liquor reduced to a syrup, which you can make from the trimmings of the mushrooms you fry for the filling.
The sauceHalf-glaze (No. 413) is Ranhofer's demi-glace: reduced brown stock and brown sauce, in some versions finished with a little Madeira. A good commercial demi-glace loosened with stock and finished with the mushroom reduction is a fair stand-in.
YieldThe recipe uses only half the prepared forcemeat, without saying why; half of the mixture in inch-and-a-half balls comes to somewhere around ten or twelve parcels. The remainder keeps a day or two refrigerated and can be used for another crépinette or as a stuffing.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the house method at its most systematic: a small dish assembled entirely from cross-references to other numbered preparations, so that a brigade could build it from components already standing in the kitchen. The crépinette itself is old French butcher's work, a flattened sausage wrapped in caul instead of gut, and Ranhofer's version simply promotes it from pork shop to restaurant menu by swapping in chicken breast and layering truffle through the middle. Garnish names honoring figures from French history were a standard classifying device in nineteenth-century kitchens, and this one is generally taken to nod to Turenne, the seventeenth-century marshal; the association is conventional rather than documented, and such names traveled between dishes with little consistency from one house to the next.