No. 2496

Galantine of Pigeons

Galantine de Pigeons

Bone three large, tender, clean and singed pigeons, season the inside meat and fill them with forcemeat (No. 65), mingled with a little baking forcemeat (No. 81) and a few spoonfuls of truffles cut in dice. Return them to their former shape, sew up and wrap each one in a separate piece of muslin, then cook them for one hour in a good stock; when done properly, unwrap, tighten more and let get cold under the pressure of a weight. When ready to use, take the pigeons from the cloths, glaze them over, cut in slices and dress with jelly.

← No. 2495 Galantine of Pheasant Cut Up The Cold Service No. 2497 Galantine of Pullet or Capon a la Mozart →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a professional larder: two numbered forcemeats, truffles, a stockpot always at the ready. The dish translates well provided you keep the poaching liquid below a simmer and give the galantines a long, cold press.

The hinge: poach, never boilHeld at a rolling boil the forcemeat swells and splits the skin, and the meat squeezes out its juices into the stock. Ranhofer gives no temperatures; in practice keep the stock barely trembling, around 170-180F, for the full hour, and check that the centre of a stuffed boned squab reaches at least 165F before it comes out.
"Pigeons" means squabRanhofer's large tender pigeons are young birds, roughly 12-16 oz each dressed. Farmed squab is the direct equivalent. Older wood pigeon is much leaner and tougher and will not give the same sliceable result.
BoningThe bird is boned out whole with the skin left intact, wings and legs boned in place; through the back is the usual approach, though Ranhofer does not say. The carcasses can be used to fortify the poaching stock, and that stock is the obvious source of the jelly, though the recipe does not say so.
The two forcemeatsNo. 81 is Ranhofer's 'baking' forcemeat, the gratin type built on sauteed liver and fat pork; No. 65 is one of his fine quenelle forcemeats. Follow the text: a fine veal or chicken quenelle forcemeat as the body, only a little of the liver gratin forcemeat mingled in, plus the diced truffle. The liver mixture is what gives a galantine its darker flecks and depth.
MuslinA doubled cheesecloth will stand in. Roll each bird firmly, tie the ends like a bonbon and truss along the length so the cloth holds the shape rather than the stitching alone.
"Tighten more" and the pressUnwrap the hot galantine, re-roll it in the same cloth as tightly as you can, then weight it. Refrigerate under the weight for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight; this is what makes clean slices instead of a crumbling roll. Get it into the cold promptly rather than letting it stand at room temperature.
Glaze and jellyReduce the poaching stock, clarify it and set the strength so it just holds at refrigerator temperature. Brush the chilled galantine with it at the point where it is syrupy but not yet set, in two or three thin coats. The rest is chopped for the garnish.
YieldThree birds give roughly 24 to 30 thin slices, enough for a cold buffet for 8 to 10. Slice cold with a long thin blade and serve the slices cold, not chilled to hardness.

A Little History

A galantine is a boned bird reassembled around forcemeat, poached, pressed and served cold in its own jelly; the word is generally traced to Old French galatine, a jellied dish, and by the eighteenth century it appears to have become attached to this boned-and-pressed preparation, though the evidence is not firm. Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 with a whole battery of them numbered in sequence uron, pheasant, pullet, pigeon ubecause the cold buffet was the showpiece of the era's large dinners and receptions: it could be built a day ahead, sliced to reveal a cut pattern of truffle and forcemeat, and set out glazed on a mirror or a socle. Pigeons appear there alongside pheasant and capon.