No. 2489

Galantine of Gosling, Melon-Shaped

Galantine d'Oison en Forme de Melon

After singeing and boiling a gosling remove all its meat, spread out the skin on a buttered napkin, cut up the breast into five-eighths of an inch squares, suppress all sinews from the legs and add as much pork meat and veal meat to obtain a pound and a half in all; chop this well, then chop separately a pound of fat pork, and half a pound of beef marrow. Pound all well together and mix in with the pulp a clove of crushed and chopped garlic, some finely cut-up mushrooms, salt, spices No. 2 (No. 168), and a few egg-yolks. Lay this forcemeat on the skin and close up the napkin, giving it a round shape; tie and cook in a stock (No. 194a). Unwrap and then retighten the napkin and flatten lightly, so as to give it the shape of a melon; let cool for twenty-four hours, afterward imitate a melon by cutting eight half-inch deep grooves from top to bottom, glazing it over with white chaudfroid (No. 596) colored with yellow. Paint it with spinach green (No. 37) to imitate a cantaloup melon, and coat with layers of half-set jelly. Imitate the stalk and melon leaves with modeling fat (No. 56) and dress it on a dish, garnishing around with chopped jelly and croutons of jelly.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a cold buffet showpiece from Delmonico's kitchen, and it depends on cross-references Ranhofer expected you to have at hand. The hinge is the cloth: the galantine takes its melon shape from being wrapped, poached, then rewrapped tighter while still hot, so have the napkin and twine ready before the forcemeat goes anywhere near the skin.

A goslingA young goose, sold at a lighter weight than a mature bird and killed before the fat and connective tissue set. Most poultry sold as "goose" today is older and much fatter; a large duck or two, or a boned 5 lb chicken plus goose skin, gets closer to the original texture. You need the skin off in one unbroken sheet. Note that Ranhofer singes and boils the bird before the meat is taken off.
"Singeing and boiling"Singeing burns off pinfeathers over a flame. Ranhofer does not say how long the boiling lasts; it precedes the skinning and boning rather than being the cooking proper, since the galantine is afterwards cooked in stock.
The forcemeat proportionsRead them carefully: a pound and a half of lean total, made up of the breast dice, the leg meat, and enough added pork and veal to reach that weight. To that go a full pound of fat pork and half a pound of beef marrow. That is a fat-to-lean ratio well beyond modern charcuterie practice; halving the fat pork gives a sliceable galantine that is still rich.
Beef marrowOrder marrow bones and scoop the marrow, or ask for it split. It should be soaked in cold water, then chilled hard before pounding, or it smears.
Spices No. 2One of the mixed-spice blends given under Ranhofer's No. 168; the exact composition should be checked there. A commercial quatre-epices or your own pepper-nutmeg-clove-ginger mix stands in; use about a teaspoon per pound of forcemeat and season the raw mixture, then fry a spoonful to taste before wrapping.
Poaching, and the temperature that mattersSimmer the wrapped galantine gently in the stock, never at a rolling boil, until the centre reads 160-165F. For a piece this size expect two to two and a half hours. A boiled galantine renders its fat out and collapses.
CoolingRewrap and shape while hot, then cool it in the refrigerator, not on a counter. Twenty-four hours in the cold makes it firm enough to carve the eight grooves cleanly; a room-temperature overnight rest on a large meat forcemeat is not acceptable practice now.
The decoration cross-referencesWhite chaudfroid (No. 596) is a white sauce set with aspic; spinach green (No. 37) is a green colouring drawn from spinach; modelling fat (No. 56) is a workable fat paste for sculpting the stalk and leaves. Check Ranhofer's own entries for the exact make-up of each. Any of the three can be replaced with modern coloured aspic and a piped butter paste, though the flat opaque finish of chaudfroid is what makes the melon illusion work.
YieldNo serving number is given. With roughly three pounds of forcemeat plus the skin, sliced thin as a cold course it would stretch a long way; keep it refrigerated under its jelly and use it within a few days.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its cold service chapters are essentially a catalogue of trompe-l'oeil: hams glazed to look like fruit, salmon in aspic armour, and here a boned goose disguised as a cantaloupe. The word galantine is generally traced to Old French forms related to geline, a hen, and the technique is older than the disguise — bone a bird, rebuild it around a forcemeat, poach it in its own gelatinous stock and serve it cold in slices. What dates the dish to the late nineteenth century is the modelling: a banquet in this style was judged on the buffet table before anyone tasted anything, so grooving, colouring and glazing a galantine into a melon complete with sculpted stalk was labour with a clear commercial purpose.