No. 2462

Chaudfroid of Turkey a la Perigord

Chaudfroid de Dinde a la Perigord

Braise and put away to cool a fine six to eight-pound turkey; remove the fillets, free them from skin and sinews, and cut each one into six pieces, making them as long as possible; trim them all the same shape and size, and cover over one side with a thin layer of foies-gras taken from a terrine, pounded and rubbed through a sieve; let get quite cold. Prepare a chaudfroid with a quart of reduced veloute sauce (No. 415) and the braise stock, strained, skimmed and reduced to a pint, with as much aspic jelly (No. 103) added. Let the chaudfroid be cold enough to cover the meat well. Then dip the pieces one by one into it and remove them with a fork, placing one beside the other on a tray or on a grate. Let get cold, then cover them once more, exactly the same as before, and finish by covering with half-set jelly. Dress them on the bottom of a dish around a support, both the foundation and support being made of tin, having a hole in the summit and covered with noodle paste (No. 142), dried in the open air and glazed over with game glaze (No. 398). Decorate all around with small glazed truffles set in small white crimped paper cases. Insert into the top of the support a tasteful hatelet ornamented with a fine glazed truffle and a cock's-comb.

← No. 2461 Chaudfroid of Snipe in Pyramid The Cold Service No. 2463 Chickens Ecarlate a la Derenne →

For the Modern Kitchen

A late nineteenth-century buffet centerpiece from Delmonico's kitchen: braised turkey breast, masked twice in a chilled velouté-and-aspic sauce, then glazed. The cooking is easy; everything difficult about it is temperature control.

What a chaudfroid isA cold sauce that sets: velouté enriched with reduced braising stock and aspic, cooled until it just begins to thicken. It is not a hot sauce served cold, and it is not plain aspic.
The hinge: coating temperatureThe recipe's only instruction is that the chaudfroid be "cold enough to cover the meat well": cooled to the point where it coats a spoon in an even, opaque film and no more, roughly the consistency of pouring cream. Warmer and it runs off in streaks; cooler and it sets in lumps as the meat touches it. Work over a bowl of ice water and stir constantly, and scrape the drips back through a sieve before the second coat.
QuantitiesA quart is 4 cups of reduced veloute; the braise stock is reduced to a pint (2 cups) and matched with an equal volume of aspic. That yields more sauce than twelve pieces strictly need, though dipping does require depth.
Braising the birdA six- to eight-pound turkey here means a small whole bird, not a modern 15-pound roaster. Braise it covered in stock and aromatics until the breast reaches at least 165F, then cool it promptly and refrigerate, keeping it in its own liquid so the fillets stay moist. The strained, skimmed, reduced braise stock is the flavor backbone of the sauce, so do not discard it.
Foie gras from a terrineThis means cooked terrine-style foie gras, sieved to a smooth paste, not raw lobe. Modern foie gras mousse or a good pate de foie gras works; the recipe calls for a thin layer, so spread it thinly.
Aspic that actually setsPeriod aspic jellies of this kind (No. 103) were typically clarified stocks rich in natural gelatin from veal and calf's feet. If you are building it from ordinary stock, plan on about 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons powdered gelatin per pint for a coating jelly, firm enough to hold, soft enough to eat.
The tin supportThe dome and base of tin, sheathed in dried noodle paste and painted with game glaze, is Victorian buffet architecture rather than food. Any chilled platter and a low pedestal will do; the hatelet is a decorative skewer, and cock's-combs are not something a supermarket carries.
Holding and yieldTwo fillets cut into six pieces each gives twelve portions, enough for six to twelve as part of a cold table. Keep everything refrigerated between coats and bring it out no more than half an hour before service — the aspic softens quickly in a warm room.

A Little History

À la Périgord is a menu shorthand rather than a place-specific dish: in classical French cooking it signals truffles, and usually foie gras alongside them, both associated with the Périgord region of southwest France. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a full record of the restaurant's repertoire, and its cold service chapter is dense with this kind of construction — meats masked in chaudfroid, set on tin supports, crowned with ornamental skewers. The style belongs to the era of service à la russe, when dishes came to the table in courses but the cold buffet remained a place for display, and a kitchen's standing was judged partly on how smooth and unblemished its glazed surfaces were. Chaudfroid itself is generally traced to eighteenth-century France, the name meaning simply hot-cold: a dish cooked hot and served cold in its own set sauce.