No. 2328

Chicken Quenelles, Bretonne

Quenelles de Poulet Bretonne

This entree is to be dressed on a paste foundation that covers the bottom of a dish, the sides of it to be decorated, and it should have a round flat support in the center, shaped rather on a slope and two inches high; this support is to be made of fried bread covered with forcemeat and poached in a slack oven. In this manner the quenelles will have a firm foundation to stand against, and the mushrooms being supported by this prop cannot impair the solidity of the circle, but in order to be perfectly safe it were better that the bottom of the dish be provided with an outstanding ledge, thus giving more strength to the circle. Prepare a pretty garnishing of turned mushrooms (No. 118) of even size, and cooked very white; have some minced onions also prepared, reduced with good bechamel sauce (No. 409), and thickened off the fire with two egg-yolks, finishing with a dash of cayenne. Pound the raw meats of a large chicken, mixing in a third as much pate-a-choux panada (No. 121), adding it very slowly so that the meats will take some time to pound, then put in about four or five spoonfuls of the minced onions. When all is well mingled add two or three raw yolks; pass this forcemeat through a sieve, lay it aside in a metal bowl, smooth it on ice, and mold it into about fifteen handsome quenelles (No. 154); poach and remove carefully with a skimmer; drain on a cloth, and dress them at once in a uniform circle, slightly spreading outward; arrange the mushrooms on top of the support, and cover them with a little good veloute sauce (No. 415), reduced with the mushroom broth and parings; serve more of this sauce apart.

← No. 2327 Chicken Quenelles a la Richelleu Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2329 Quenelles of Chicken with Consomme →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a mortar, a stock pot and cross-references to a hundred other numbered recipes. The dish is a chicken mousseline forced into quenelles, ringed around a bread-and-forcemeat plinth, and the presentation architecture takes up more of his text than the cooking does.

The hinge: keep everything coldA chicken mousseline holds together only while the fat, protein and liquid stay emulsified, and that means working it thoroughly chilled. Ranhofer's instruction to smooth the forcemeat over ice is not decorative — if the mixture warms while you work it, the quenelles break apart in the poaching liquid.
Poach, do not boilQuenelles go into salted water or light stock held at 170-180F, barely trembling, for 8-12 minutes depending on size. A rolling boil bursts them; that is the single most common failure with this style of forcemeat.
"Slack oven"For setting the forcemeat-covered bread support, read this as 275-300F. It is meant to firm the coating through without colouring it.
Pâte-à-choux panadaHis No. 121 is a stiff choux paste — water, butter, flour, dried out over heat, sometimes with an egg — used as a binder. A plain bread panada (crumb soaked in milk and squeezed dry) works in the same proportion, one-third the weight of the meat.
PoundingWhere he calls for the panada to be worked in slowly so the pounding takes some time, use a food processor with the bowl and blade chilled. Grind the raw chicken meat first, add the panada in stages, then the yolks, and stop as soon as it is smooth.
"Spoonfuls" is vagueFour or five spoonfuls of the reduced onion is roughly 1/4 to 1/3 cup if he means tablespoons. He gives no spoon size; season and taste the mixture by poaching a teaspoon of it as a test dumpling.
Turned mushroomsHis No. 118 means button mushrooms pared into ridged domes with a small knife and stewed in water with butter and lemon juice to keep them white. Cook them covered and barely simmering; browning defeats the point.
Velouté and béchamelBoth are made from scratch in this book — velouté is a blond roux loosened with chicken stock, béchamel the same with milk. The velouté here is reduced with the mushroom cooking liquid and trimmings, which is where most of the flavour of the finished plate comes from.
YieldFifteen quenelles serve five or six as a course. The bread support and pastry-lined dish can be skipped entirely; the quenelles, mushrooms and sauce stand on their own in a shallow serving dish.

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 book at its most characteristic: a small quantity of food arranged as a piece of edible architecture, with a fried-bread pedestal built solely so that a ring of dumplings will not collapse. Quenelle comes into French from a Germanic root also behind Knödel, dumpling, and the technique — pounded raw meat or fish lightened with a panada and eggs, then poached — belonged to the classical repertoire long before Ranhofer and survives in the pike quenelles of Lyon. The label à la bretonne is generally attached to garnishes built on onions, often with beans or a sauce enriched by them; here it is the reduced minced onion folded into the forcemeat and thickened with yolks that earns the name, rather than any documented connection to Brittany's own cooking.