No. 2488

Galantine of Eel, Decorated

Galantine d'Anguille Decoree

Skin a large Niagara eel, take out the middle bone, season and fill it with fish quenelle forcemeat (No. 90), mixing into it truffles and pistachios, seasoning it well. Inclose this dressing in the eel and lay it in a well-buttered Savarin mold, baste over with white wine mirepoix stock (No. 419) and cover with bards of fat pork. Place this mold in a low saucepan containing a little water and push it into a slack oven; when the fish is properly done, remove and leave it to cool off in the mold under the pressure of a light weight, then turn it out and dress on a round dish; cover over with Cambridge butter (No. 570), decorate with cuts of truffle, the red part of a lobster, tarragon leaves and a small stalk of chervil; garnish around with quartered hard-boiled eggs (No. 2513) and fill the center with a macedoine salad (No. 2650) dressed with mayonnaise (No. 606); serve with a separate tartar sauce (No. 631).

← No. 2487 Galantine of Duckling, Pear-Shaped The Cold Service No. 2489 Galantine of Gosling, Melon-Shaped →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold buffet centerpiece from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen, built by cross-referencing half a dozen other numbered recipes. Most of the work is butchery and patience; the cooking itself is gentle.

The hinge: cook it low and cool it under weightA slack oven is roughly 250-300F, and the mold sits in a water bath, so the forcemeat sets rather than curdles. Pull it at 145-150F in the center, then cool in the mold under a light weight so the galantine compacts and slices cleanly instead of crumbling.
Niagara eelPresumably a large American eel from the Niagara/Lake Ontario trade, sold in New York in Ranhofer's day. American eel stocks have since declined sharply and the fishery is restricted; buy from a fishmonger who can tell you the source. European eel is CITES-restricted and Japanese eel is also listed as threatened, so a firm-fleshed fish fillet is the sounder substitute.
Eel bloodRaw eel serum contains a protein toxin that irritates skin and eyes and is dangerous if swallowed. It is destroyed by heat, so a fully cooked galantine is fine, but rinse the boned fish well, keep the blood away from cuts and eyes, and do not taste anything raw.
Bards of fat porkThin sheets of cured or fresh pork back fat, laid over the surface to keep it from drying. Caul fat or very thinly sliced unsmoked fatback does the same job; thin-sliced bacon works but adds smoke and salt.
Savarin moldA shallow ring mold, so the finished galantine is a doughnut of eel with a hollow center to be filled with salad. A 9-inch ring mold or a well-buttered angel-food pan of similar depth substitutes; the eel is coiled around the ring.
Mirepoix stock, No. 419The cross-reference is to a cooking liquor rather than a plain bed of diced vegetables; check No. 419 for its actual composition, which may include cured pork or ham as well as wine and vegetables. As basting liquid, fish stock reduced with white wine, finely diced carrot, onion, celery and herbs, then strained, will approximate it.
Cambridge butter, No. 570A cold compound butter in the family of Cambridge sauce: butter worked with hard-boiled egg yolk, anchovy and green herbs; check No. 570 for the exact proportions and herbs. Spread it while pliable at cool room temperature, then chill the coated galantine before setting the truffle and lobster decoration.
Yield and servingA 2-3 lb eel filled with forcemeat gives a ring that serves 8 to 10 as a cold course. Take it out of the refrigerator 20 minutes before serving; the butter coating and the eel's own fat are both unpleasant fridge-cold.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after three decades as chef at Delmonico's, and this recipe shows what a cold service meant in that world: a fish boned, stuffed, molded, pressed, coated, painted with truffle and lobster coral, and set out to be looked at before it was eaten. A galantine, whose name is often traced to an Old French word for a jellied or aspic-set dish, though other derivations have been proposed, is by definition a boned meat or fish stuffed with forcemeat and served cold, and eel suits the technique better than most fish because it is fatty enough to stay moist and gelatinous enough to slice. The "Niagara eel" points to a real commercial trade: American eels ran up the St. Lawrence into Lake Ontario in numbers that supported market fisheries through the nineteenth century. That run is generally understood to have declined sharply since, which is why a dish that was once a matter of ordinary supply now needs a note about sourcing.