No. 2386

Timbale of Pullet

Timbale de Poularde

Cut each of two pullets into five pieces, and five ounces of bacon into thin squares; warm these in a saucepan with some butter, then add the pieces of chicken, and fry them while tossing; season, put in the livers and three or four peeled and sliced truffles. When the chickens are partly done moisten them with a little white wine and reduce quickly; then pour the stew into a tureen. Butter a timbale mold, bestrew chopped noodles over the sides and bottom, and then line it with fine paste (No. 142); cover the sides and bottoms with veal chopped forcemeat (No. 65), finished with a few cooked fine herbs (No. 385). Pour the stew into the timbale, leaving as little empty space as possible, and covering over with a flat of the same paste; fasten this to the edge, and egg over the whole, then push the timbale into a moderate oven to cook for one hour. After removing it cut a small opening in the middle of the crust, and pour in a few spoonfuls of good half-glaze sauce (No. 413); close the opening and invert the timbale on a dish to serve.

← No. 2385 Timbale of Lobster a la d'Aumale Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2387 Timbale of Squabs a la Berchoux →

For the Modern Kitchen

A raised pie in a mold: a half-cooked chicken fricassee sealed inside pastry lined with forcemeat, baked, sauced through a vent, then turned out. Ranhofer assumes you have his numbered base recipes to hand, so the work is mostly in the components.

The hinge: leave no airThe instruction to fill the mold "leaving as little empty space as possible" is what holds the thing together. A gap under the crust collapses when you invert it, and the demi-glace poured in at the end has nowhere to distribute. Pack the pieces tightly and top up with the pan juices before the lid goes on.
PulletA pullet is a young hen, roughly 3 to 3 1/2 lb, more tender than a stewing fowl. Two small chickens of that weight are a sensible substitute. Ranhofer says only "five pieces" and does not specify the division; two legs, two wings with breast attached and the back would give it.
BaconRanhofer's "bacon" here is most likely salt pork cut in lardons rather than modern heavily smoked supermarket bacon, which would dominate the truffle and the fines herbes; use pancetta or salt pork, and blanch it if very salty.
The numbered cross-referencesNo. 142 is Ranhofer's fine paste, No. 65 his veal forcemeat, No. 385 his cooked fines herbes and No. 413 his half-glaze, i.e. demi-glace. The page does not give their composition; any equivalent modern versions serve.
Chopped noodles in the moldThe noodles bestrewn over the buttered mold before lining presumably act as a release layer and surface texture; the recipe gives no reason. Fine dry breadcrumbs would do the same job.
OvenA moderate oven is roughly 350 to 375F. One hour finishes both the pastry and the partly cooked chicken; if the crust is coloring too fast, tent it with foil rather than dropping the heat.
TrufflesThree or four peeled fresh black truffles is beyond most modern budgets. A single small truffle, or 2 to 3 oz of sautéed cremini plus a spoonful of truffle trimmings, keeps the dish in balance without pretending.
LiversThe livers go in with the truffles while the chicken is still frying, then cook on for the full hour in the oven, so they will be firm. If you prefer them pink, reserve and tuck them in raw just before sealing.
ServingNo yield is given. Two pullets should roughly fill a 2-quart charlotte or timbale mold, enough for six to eight. Let it rest before inverting so the forcemeat sets against the crust.

A Little History

This is Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the record of some thirty years cooking at Delmonico's in New York, and it reads less like a cookbook than a professional inventory: over 3,000 numbered recipes, each assuming the others. The timbale itself takes its name from the drum-shaped mold (French timbale, generally traced back to an Arabic word for drum), and the technique of lining a mold with pastry and forcemeat, filling it with a ragout and turning it out whole belongs to the grande cuisine that Carême helped codify earlier in the century. Ranhofer's book is full of these constructions because they could be assembled in advance and brought to the table intact and impressive. The truffles and the demi-glace poured in through a hole in the lid at the last moment are the marks of a restaurant kitchen with a stockpot always running.