No. 2331

Quenelles of Foies-Gras, Stuffed a la Financiere

Quenelles de Foies-Gras Fourrees a la Financiere

Fasten a bread or rice croustade on a dish as shown in Fig. 431, hollowing it one inch only on the top; in the center place a rice support slightly conical in shape and two inches high. Have this croustade fastened on a dish and keep it covered. Prepare a montglas of truffles; mix it with a very thick brown sauce (No. 414), leave to cool, then divide it into small parts and roll each of these into long olives. Pound a raw foies-gras, season and pass it through a sieve; pound also half as much breast of raw chicken and add slowly to it half the same quantity of bread panada (No. 121); press this forcemeat through a sieve and return it to the mortar, season and pound once more, incorporating in gradually the pounded foies-gras and three or four egg-yolks; season highly; smooth by beating on ice, then try a small piece to judge of its consistency. With the bones, fragments of chicken and broth prepare a supreme sauce (No. 547); keep it in a bain-marie. Butter a dozen quenelle molds, decorate them with truffles (Fig. 75), fill them full of forcemeat, form a depression in the center, place in one of the montglas olives and cover with more forcemeat so that it lies exactly in the center of the quenelle; smooth dome-form with the blade of a small wet knife to have it a perfect shaped quenelle. Range these molds on a deep baking pan containing a little hot water, cover with buttered paper and poach in a slack oven. Remove and dress them almost upright on the croustade, leaning them against the support, and finally cover with a little of the supreme sauce. Fill the empty space in the center with a tastefully arranged cluster of mushrooms and imitation cocks'-combs made of veal palates, masking them with more of the sauce, and in the middle lay a fine glazed truffle; cover very lightly with the sauce and serve what remains in a sauce-boat.

← No. 2330 Quenelles of Fish, Montglas Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2332 Quenelles of Grouse, Londonderry →

For the Modern Kitchen

An 1894 Delmonico's showpiece: a mousseline forcemeat of raw foie gras and chicken breast, each quenelle hiding a truffle-and-sauce filling, built up on a rice or bread plinth. The construction is fussy but the forcemeat itself is straightforward if the ingredients stay cold.

Keep everything ice-coldThis is the hinge. A foie gras and chicken mousseline breaks the moment the fat warms, and Ranhofer's instruction to smooth it "by beating on ice" is not decoration. Work the mixture over a bowl of ice, and if it looks greasy or grainy, chill it hard before going further. A food processor replaces the mortar, but pulse in short bursts and pass the result through a drum sieve or fine tamis as directed.
"Slack oven"A low oven, on the order of 250-300F. The water bath and buttered paper are there to keep the forcemeat below a simmer; poached hot, the quenelles swell, then collapse and weep fat. Timing will depend on the molds, but reckon on something like 20-30 minutes for standard quenelle molds, and check the center reaches 165F, since the forcemeat contains raw poultry and raw liver.
PanadaNo. 121 is a bread panada: crustless bread soaked in milk or broth, then dried out over heat into a stiff paste and cooled. It binds the forcemeat and keeps it tender. Modern versions often use a pâte à choux panade instead, which behaves much the same.
MontglasHere it means a fine dice of truffle bound in a very thick brown sauce (No. 414), chilled until it can be rolled into small olive shapes. Any thick, well-reduced brown sauce works; it must be stiff enough to hold its shape inside the quenelle during poaching.
Supreme sauceNo. 547 is a chicken velouté finished with cream and mushroom cooking liquor, made here from the bones and trimmings left after taking the breast. Keep it in a bain-marie as instructed; it splits if held over direct heat.
Veal palates and cocks' combsReal cocks' combs were the classic financière garnish; Ranhofer's "imitation" ones are cut from blanched, peeled veal palate. Neither is easy to find. Small poached mushroom caps, cockscomb-shaped croutons, or simply more truffle carry the same visual idea.
The croustadeA structural base, not something anyone was expected to eat with relish: a firm disc of compressed rice or fried bread, hollowed an inch, with a two-inch conical rice support so the quenelles can lean upright. Ranhofer says only that it is to be fastened to the dish and kept covered.
Foie grasRaw duck or goose liver, deveined, is what the recipe wants; already-cooked terrine will not emulsify the same way. A dozen quenelles suggests roughly 8 oz foie gras to 4 oz chicken breast to 2 oz panada, with three or four yolks.
YieldThe recipe gives no serving count; a dozen quenelles would plausibly serve six as a course in a long dinner, or four generously. It is rich enough that little else is needed alongside beyond the sauce-boat.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is his attempt to set down the whole repertoire in some 3,500 numbered recipes, cross-referenced to one another the way this one calls out Nos. 414, 121 and 547. À la financière was among the grandest of nineteenth-century garnishes, generally traced to the French haute cuisine of the Restoration and named, it is usually said, for the lavishness expected of a financier's table: truffles, cockscombs and kidneys, mushrooms, and a madeira-scented sauce. Its presence here, wrapped around foie gras quenelles and mounted on a rice plinth, shows what American service à la russe still owed to Carême's tradition of the socle and the built-up centerpiece, where a dish was expected to arrive at the table as architecture. The recipe also documents a working economy now largely lost: the chicken is broken down in the kitchen, the breast goes into the forcemeat, and the bones and scraps become the sauce that coats it.