No. 2410

Aspic of Cocks'-Combs and Kidneys a la Mazarin

Aspic de Cretes et de Rognons de Coqs a la Mazarin

Braise some cocks'-combs and kidneys, and when cold drain and wipe well. Cover the combs with a white chaudfroid (No. 596), and the kidneys with a blond chaudfroid made by mixing half brown chaudfroid (No. 594) and half white chaudfroid (No. 596). Coat with jelly a plain cylindrical or channeled mold, having it rather high, and fill the bottom with the combs dressed in a ring, one overlapping the other, and cover with jelly; lay on top a garnishing of the kidneys, cover with more jelly and when this has hardened dress on some roasted chicken fillets, sliced and pared round-shaped, and covered with ravigote chaudfroid (No. 595); lay these in a circle and continue to fill up the mold, alternating the combs, kidneys and chicken; when very full let get cold and unmold on a small low socle made of stearine. Place a mandrel in the empty space in the mold, and on it a cup filled with small cases containing whole glazed truffles, and decorate around with small timbales (No. 3, Fig. 137) filled with jelly and foies-gras.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a set-piece from the cold buffet, built in layers inside a chilled mold and meant to be looked at before it is eaten. The technique is straightforward; the sourcing and the timing are what will stop you.

The hinge: work in thin, fully set layersEach layer of jelly must be firm before the next garnish goes in, or the combs and kidneys float and the pattern collapses. Set the mold in ice water or the refrigerator between additions and add jelly cool and syrupy, never warm.
Cocks' combsThe fleshy crest of a rooster. Not a supermarket item; a halal or Chinese butcher or a specialist poultry supplier is the realistic source. They need long blanching and peeling of the outer skin before braising, which Ranhofer assumes you already know from his earlier entries.
"Kidneys of cocks"Rognons de coq are rooster testicles, not kidneys — a standard nineteenth-century garnish, still sold in some Asian markets as chicken testicles. They are pale, soft and delicate, and overcooking makes them grainy; a gentle braise of a few minutes is enough.
ChaudfroidA white or brown sauce enriched with aspic so it sets into an opaque coating. The white version is built on a velouté-type white sauce, the brown on espagnole, and ravigote is a green herb version; the "blond" here is simply the white and brown mixed half and half. Coat the pieces cold, on a rack, and chill between coats.
Jelly strengthRanhofer's jelly was built from long-simmered veal and poultry trimmings, calf's foot and knuckle among them, and his own jelly recipes sometimes add gelatine besides. Modern stock rarely sets firmly enough on its own. Use a well-clarified stock reinforced with gelatin — on the order of 2 teaspoons of powdered gelatin per cup for a jelly firm enough to unmold cleanly and hold a slice.
The socle and mandrel are not foodStearine is rendered fat pressed into a hard white plinth, used purely as a display base; the mandrel is a metal spindle to carry the cup above the aspic's hollow centre. Both are staging. A chilled platter and a small footed bowl do the same job.
Keep it coldThis is braised poultry offal in a gelatin matrix, assembled by hand and served unheated. Build it in the refrigerator, not on the counter, and return it there until service; do not let it stand out for the length of a long buffet.
YieldRanhofer gives no quantities. A high cylindrical mold of about two quarts would serve roughly twelve to sixteen as part of a cold table, cut in wedges; figure something like a pound of prepared combs and kidneys combined, plus the fillets of one roasted chicken.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of what he cooked in some thirty years at Delmonico's in New York, and this dish shows the house at full stretch: three separate chaudfroids, a layered aspic, truffles in paper cases, and a carved fat plinth to raise the whole thing off the platter. Cocks' combs and rooster testicles had been prized French garnishes since at least the seventeenth century, valued for their pale colour and yielding texture rather than any strong flavour, and they turn up constantly in the ragoûts and vol-au-vents of classical cookery before falling out of Anglo-American use in the twentieth century. Garnishes styled à la Mazarin are generally traced to Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the Italian-born minister of Louis XIV, though as with most such names the connection is honorific rather than documented — nineteenth-century chefs attached the label to elaborate composed presentations, and Ranhofer is following that convention rather than reproducing anything the cardinal ate.