Quenelles of Grouse, Londonderry

This is a Ranhofer construction rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes you already have his game forcemeat, Madeira sauce and game fumet on hand. Read it as an assembly method and the sequence makes sense.

• The hinge: never let the water boilThe hinge: never let the water boil hard -- "Poach in boiling water" should not be taken as a rolling boil. Bring the water to a boil, then hold it at 170-180F, barely trembling; a rolling boil swells the forcemeat, splits the seam between the two layers and lets the salpicon leak out. Ten to fifteen minutes for molds this size, until the center is firm to a fingertip.
• What the cross-references containNo. 91 is Ranhofer's quenelle forcemeat for game, made here with grouse: pounded meat worked with a panada and binding and passed through a sieve. No. 492 is his Madeira sauce, a brown sauce; No. 397 is a game fumet, a concentrated game essence. Any good modern mousseline forcemeat and a reduced game jus will stand in.
• SalpiconA salpicon is simply a dice — here grouse meat and mushrooms cut small and even, half and half, bound with just enough thick Madeira sauce to hold together. Chill it hard before it goes into the molds; a warm, loose filling will blur into the forcemeat.
• Sourcing the birdWild grouse taken in the United States cannot legally be sold, and grouse is seasonal elsewhere, though imported wild birds do reach some game dealers. Farmed guinea fowl, squab or pheasant leg meat gives a comparable dark, gamey forcemeat; the breast, diced, does for the salpicon.
• The moldsShallow oval molds of about 3 x 2 1/4 inches, half an inch deep, are the target — roughly 1 1/2 fl oz each. Silicone oval molds work but hold truffle decoration poorly; buttered metal is better, since the cold butter is what fixes the truffle cuts in place.
• Truffle decorationThin slices of black truffle cut into rounds, crescents or leaves with aspic cutters, pressed onto the cold buttered mold before any forcemeat goes in, so they appear on the surface when unmolded. Black olive or blanched leek greens give the same graphic effect at a fraction of the cost.
• The "dish bottom having a support"Ranhofer means a footed socle or croustade set on the platter, with the quenelles ranged around its base and truffles heaped on top. A shallow bowl inverted on the platter, or simply arranging the quenelles in a ring, serves the same purpose on a modern table.
• YieldThe original gives none. Molds of this size hold about 1 1/2 oz each; figure two per person as an entrée course, so about a pound of forcemeat and a cup of salpicon will serve six.