No. 2304

"pain" of Chicken a la Villars

Pain de Volaille a la Villars

Prepare a chicken quenelle forcemeat (No. 89); dilute with a little Madeira sauce (No. 492). Butter a cylindrical-shaped low mold, decorate it with a few fanciful cuts of truffles and fill it with the forcemeat; poach by putting it in a saucepan with water to half its height; bring the water to the boiling point and poach in a slack oven; when firm to the touch in the center remove from the oven and unmold. Have the breasts and minion fillets well pared and free of sinews, then cut into escalops; saute them on a brisk fire with some minced truffles, season and drain off the butter, replacing it by a little Madeira and half-glaze (No. 400), adding two dozen small channeled mushroom heads (No. 118); when the whole is very hot dress the mushrooms around the "pain" and the escalops and truffles in the center of it. Serve a Madeira sauce (No. 492) at the same time.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A hot chicken mousseline loaf poached in a water bath, unmolded, and garnished with sauteed breast escalops. The whole thing hangs on the forcemeat: if it is warm, loose, or over-diluted it will weep and slump when you turn it out.

"Pain" means loaf, not bread"Pain" here is the culinary sense of the word — a bound forcemeat poached or baked in a mold and turned out whole, i.e. a loaf shape rather than a bread. Nothing in this recipe is baked as bread.
Keep the forcemeat coldRanhofer's No. 89 is a pounded chicken quenelle forcemeat. Work it over ice, add the Madeira sauce a spoonful at a time, and test a small poached dumpling before you fill the mold as a check on seasoning and set.
Slack ovenA low oven, somewhere in the region of 275-325F. The point is that the water around the mold must never come back to a rolling boil after it goes in the oven, or the forcemeat inflates and turns spongy.
Bain-marie techniqueButter the mold and cover the top with buttered parchment. Water to half the mold's height, brought to a boil on the stovetop before it goes in the oven, as written. Allow somewhere around 35-50 minutes for a low cylinder mold of about 1 quart; firm to the touch in the center should mean roughly 160-165F on an instant-read thermometer.
UnmoldingLet it stand five minutes out of the water, drain any liquid from the mold's edge, then invert onto a warm platter. Blot the surface before dressing the garnish or the sauce will slide off.
Half-glaze and Madeira sauceNo. 400 is Ranhofer's half-glaze, the period demi-glace: a brown sauce base reduced down, thickened in the original by roux as well as reduction. A good reduced veal or chicken stock, thickened only by reduction, will stand in; the Madeira sauce served alongside is the same base finished with Madeira. Add the wine off the heat at the end so it keeps its perfume.
Channeled mushroom headsNo. 118 refers to small button caps grooved decoratively with a knife and cooked white in butter, lemon and a little water. Untrimmed small caps cooked the same way are fine; the channeling is ornament only.
TrufflesThe "fanciful cuts" lining the mold are thin black truffle slices stamped into shapes. Fresh black truffle is a considerable expense for decoration; preserved truffle peelings will scent the forcemeat, and blanched leek green or black olive can carry the pattern if you only want the visual effect.
Minion filletsThe filets mignons of the bird — the two small tenders lying under the breasts. Pull the tendon out of each before slicing into escalops.
YieldOne chicken's forcemeat and breast meat in a quart mold should serve about six as an entree course, or four as a main.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertory written down — some 3,500 numbered items, each cross-referenced to the forcemeats, sauces and garnishes on which it depends. That structure is why this page reads like an assembly diagram rather than a recipe: No. 89, No. 492, No. 400 and No. 118 were all standing preparations a brigade would have ready. Dishes named a la Villars appear across nineteenth-century French cookery and are generally traced to the Duc de Villars, marshal of France under Louis XIV, though as with most such garnish names the connection is honorific rather than historical, and no fixed set of ingredients attaches to it. The pain itself belongs to a family of molded forcemeat entrees — pains, mousselines, chartreuses — that gave a formal dinner service something that could be unmolded, garnished and sauced in the kitchen and carried to the table whole.