No. 2451

Chaudfroid of Chicken a la Clara Morris

Chaudfroid de Poulet a la Clara Morris

Raise the fillets from six medium two-pound chickens; remove the skin and cuticle, pare them carefully into half-hearts; salt over and lay them in a buttered sautoir in such a way that all the pointed ends are in the center; cover with clarified butter and squeeze over the juice of a lemon; place them on the fire to fry without coloring, then drain and put them under a weight to press lightly; pare them again so that they are all the same shape. Bone the second joints, keeping on half of the drumstick bones, remove the sinews and season the meats with salt, pepper and nutmeg; stuff the inside with a quenelle forcemeat (No. 89), into which mix a quarter as much foies-gras rubbed through a sieve and the same quantity of truffles, tongue and pistachios cut in three-sixteenths inch squares. Enclose the dressing well and sew the skin together to envelop it completely, then place these legs in a sautoir covered with thin slices of fat pork, moisten with mirepoix and white wine stock (No. 419), cover with buttered paper and cook them in a moderate oven. When done, drain off and place them under a weight to get cold, then cover them with either a white or brown chaudfroid sauce (No. 594). Prepare a garnishing composed of cooked channeled mushrooms (No. 118), carrot balls blanched and cooked in white broth (No. 194a), and seasoned with salt, pepper, oil, vinegar and fine herbs, and some glazed truffle balls. Dress the chaudfroid around a bread support covered with ravigote butter (No. 583), and fill in the intersections with the garnishing; around lay chopped jelly and small cases filled with asparagus tops covered with green mayonnaise with fine herbs (No. 612). On the top set a round piece of glazed truffle, and around the cases a chain of lozenge-shaped jelly croutons.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a stocked larder, and this entry leans on half a dozen cross-referenced preparations. Read it as an assembly plan: two cooked components, a coating sauce, a garnish and a display base.

What chaudfroid meansA chaudfroid is meat cooked hot, cooled, then masked with a sauce enriched with enough gelatin to set to a smooth opaque coat. The hinge of the whole dish is temperature: the sauce must be at the point where it flows but is already thickening, and the chicken must be cold and dry, or the coat slides off in sheets.
The birdsSix two-pound chickens is a small market bird by today's standards, nearer a Cornish game hen or spring chicken than a supermarket roaster. The yield is fixed by the count of birds rather than their weight: six give the twelve fillets and twelve second joints the recipe is built around.
Cuticle and half-heartsThe "cuticle" is the thin membrane over the breast meat; strip it with a knife or it shrinks and puckers. "Pared into half-hearts" means each fillet trimmed to a rounded teardrop so the twelve pieces read as a matched set on the platter.
Sautoir and the butter cookingA sautoir is a straight-sided shallow pan. Covering the fillets with clarified butter and cooking "without coloring" is closer to a butter poach than a fry - keep the fat well below a simmer and pull them the moment they are firm. A few minutes is enough at this size.
Second jointsThe second joint is the thigh. Boning it while leaving half the drumstick bone in place gives a handle and a shape; the skin is then sewn round the forcemeat so the whole thing poaches as a sealed parcel.
The forcemeatQuenelle forcemeat (No. 89) is one of Ranhofer's pounded raw forcemeats; a modern food-processor mousseline of breast meat, egg white and cream does the same work. The foie gras, truffle, tongue and pistachio are folded in as a garnish, cut small enough to show as a mosaic when sliced.
Fat pork and mirepoix"Thin slices of fat pork" is barding fatback or unsmoked salt pork, laid over the parcels to stop them drying. Mirepoix and white wine stock (No. 419) is simply a wine-and-aromatic braising liquid; use a light chicken stock with white wine, carrot, onion and thyme.
Moderate ovenRoughly 325-350F. With the pan covered in buttered paper the thighs are braising rather than roasting; 25-35 minutes, to 165F at the center of the forcemeat.
Bread support and casesThe socle is a shaped block of stale bread used purely as a plinth, masked here with green ravigote butter. It is not eaten. The "cases" are small pastry or paper shells. A cook who does not want the architecture can dress the pieces flat on a chilled platter with the garnish between them.
Serving and holdingTwelve fillets and twelve stuffed thighs will serve twelve as a cold course. Everything is eaten cold and everything has been handled after cooking, so assemble on chilled plates and return the finished piece to the refrigerator until it goes to the table.

A Little History

Clara Morris (1848-1925) was one of the best-known emotional actresses of the American stage, a fixture of Augustin Daly's company and later a touring star. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's for more than thirty years and author of The Epicurean (1894), routinely attached the names of patrons, singers, politicians and actresses to dishes he composed - the book is thick with them, and the practice was both flattery and advertising, a printed record of who had been fed at which table. The dish itself is pure late-nineteenth-century garde-manger work: the cold buffet was where a kitchen displayed its technique, since aspic, chaudfroid sauce and carved truffle hold their shape under the lights in a way hot food cannot. Nothing here is improvised; every element points back to a numbered base preparation elsewhere in the book, which is how a brigade of that size actually cooked.