No. 2366

Souffle of Woodcocks with Truffles

Souffle de Becasses aux Truffes

Suppress all the meats from three roasted woodcocks and pound it to a pulp; fry the intestines and liver in butter, add this to the pulp and press through a sieve; dilute with a heaping spoonful of game glaze (No. 398) and remove from the fire; stir the preparation until it loses its greatest heat, then add four egg-yolks, an ounce of melted butter, an ounce of peeled truffles cut in small dice, and proper seasoning, and incorporate in slowly four beaten egg-whites, and if found necessary an ounce of boiled rice may also be added. Put this either into a buttered souffle pan (Fig. 182) or else in buttered paper cases (Fig. 439) stiffened in the oven. If for cases of half a pint capacity, they will require fifteen minutes, but all depends upon their size.

← No. 2365 Souffle of Pheasant a la Andrew Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2367 Chicken Livers Surtout with Mushrooms or in →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a kitchen with roast game on hand and a stockpot of glaze already reduced. The technique itself is straightforward: a game farce lightened with beaten whites and baked in individual moulds.

The hinge: cool the base before the yolksThe instruction to stir the puree until it "loses its greatest heat" is the whole recipe. Yolks stirred into a hot glaze-bound farce will scramble in threads, and no amount of folded white will lift a curdled base.
Woodcock, and what to use insteadWoodcock cannot be bought in the United States; sale of wild migratory game has been illegal for over a century, and a bird obtained by a licensed hunter is the only legal route. Three woodcocks yield only a few ounces of picked meat each; quail or squab, in whatever number gives a similar weight of dark meat, are the usual stand-ins.
The trailThe "intestines and liver" are the woodcock's trail, traditionally left in the bird when roasting, a custom usually explained by the bird's small and clean gut. Frying it in butter and sieving it into the farce is what gives the dish its particular musky depth. Squab and quail livers stand in; do not use the intestines of other birds.
Game glaze (No. 398)A brown game stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. A heaping spoonful of good demi-glace or a commercial veal or game glace de viande, softened, is the practical equivalent. Taste before seasoning: commercial glace is often heavily salted.
Oven temperatureNo temperature is given; thermostatic ovens were not in general use in the 1890s and cooks judged heat by experience. A moderate oven, around 375F in a modern range, suits these; the recipe's fifteen minutes is for half-pint cases, less for smaller ones. They should be set at the edge and barely trembling at the centre.
Paper cases and the souffle panThe buttered paper cases are stiffened dry in the oven first so they hold their shape when filled. Modern ramekins of 8 fl oz, buttered, do the same job; fill them about three-quarters full.
The riceThe optional ounce of boiled rice is insurance, not flavour: if the sieved game puree is loose or the glaze thin, it gives the mixture body. Ranhofer adds it at the end, with the truffle.
TrufflesAn ounce of peeled black truffle, cut in small dice. Preserved truffle in jars is the closest substitute; truffle oil is not, and will read as chemical against the game.
Yield and serviceThe recipe gives no yield; the quantities suggest a few half-pint cases, or more smaller ones, served as an entrée between fish and roast. Serve the moment they leave the oven; a game souffle collapses as fast as a sweet one.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry belongs to a long run of savoury souffles built on roast game. Woodcock was among the most prized birds on American menus of the period, hunted commercially and shipped to city markets, and it was conventionally cooked with the trail left in and spread on toast beneath the bird. That trade is exactly what ended soon after this book appeared: the Lacey Act of 1900 curtailed interstate traffic in illegally taken game, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 closed the market for good, which is why the dish is now effectively unmakeable as written except by a licensed hunter.