No. 2497

Galantine of Pullet or Capon a la Mozart

Galantine de Poularde ou de Chapon a la Mozart

This cold entree can be dressed on a support slightly higher in the middle, covered with cooked paste (No. 131) and dried in the air. Singe a not too fat pullet, split it down the back, bone entirely, and season the inside. Prepare this pullet the same as a galantine of turkey a la Berger (No. 2499), and sew it up; wrap it well and cook for one hour and a half to two hours in clear, unskimmed stock (No. 194a), having the pullet bones added, and two or three boned and blanched calves' feet, some roots, onions and aromatic herbs. When the boned pullet has cooked for a sufficient length of time, drain it off and unwrap it; wrap it up once more and reshape it, tying it very tight, and then place it to cool under the pressure of a weight. When cold, pare off the ends and cut it up into equally thick slices, and divide each of these slices into two; dress them neatly in a single row on the support; garnish around with cocks'-combs and mushrooms covered over with chaudfroid, intermingled with chopped jelly, and besides have a few small cases filled with glazed truffles.

← No. 2496 Galantine of Pigeons The Cold Service No. 2498 Galantine of Suckling Pig →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a larder full of cross-references, so this reads as shorthand. The work is all in the boning, the tight rolling and the long chill; the poaching is the easy part.

The hinge: bone it without holing the skinSplit down the backbone and work the flesh off the frame with the knife tip angled toward the bone, keeping the breast and thigh skin intact. Any puncture will leak forcemeat and jelly during poaching and the finished roll will not slice cleanly.
Pullet and caponA pullet is a young hen of roughly 3 lb; a capon is a castrated cockerel of 6-8 lb, now uncommon outside specialty butchers. A 4-5 lb roasting chicken stands in for either, and a bird that size will serve about 6-8 as a cold entree once sliced and each slice halved as directed.
The "support" is not foodThe "support" is not meant to be eaten -- No. 131 cooked paste is a stiff cooked paste used for decorative work, modeled, air-dried and serving here as an inedible plinth. Modern practice is a shallow platter, a shaped block of foil-covered rice, or simply a mirror of clear aspic.
Calves' feetThey are there chiefly for gelatin, and the stock is specified clear but unskimmed, so the roll sets in a rich jelly. Use a good gelatinous chicken or veal stock and, for the coating jelly, reinforce with about 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin per 2 cups clarified stock.
Poaching temperatureHold the stock at a bare shiver, 175-180F, for the full 90 minutes to 2 hours; a rolling boil bursts the skin and squeezes out fat. The center of the roll should read 165F.
Rewrap and weight while hotThe reshaping step is what makes the slices round and dense, so do it the moment the galantine is drained, while the forcemeat is still pliable. Then refrigerate under a weighted board rather than leaving it at room temperature to cool.
Cocks' combs and chaudfroidCocks' combs are effectively unobtainable; blanched small mushroom caps, glazed pearl onions or poached quenelles fill the same decorative role. Chaudfroid is simply a velouté or reduced stock set with gelatin, spooned over chilled garnish at the point where it flows but does not run.
SlicingCut with a thin, long blade on a fully cold roll, then halve each round as directed so the cut faces show the forcemeat and truffle pattern. Bring the slices to just under room temperature before serving, or the fat in the forcemeat tastes waxy.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially his service manual, which is why an entry like this one assumes you already have the forcemeat, the paste and the stock made elsewhere in the book. Galantine comes from Old French; one proposed derivation links it to geline, an old word for hen, while others trace it to galatine, jelly -- either way the classic form is a boned bird stuffed, rolled, poached and set in its own jelly, eaten cold. Dedicating dishes to composers, singers and other celebrities was a standing habit of nineteenth-century restaurant kitchens, and the a la Mozart tag here appears to signal a particular garnish and presentation rather than any connection to Vienna. Cold, molded, glazed centerpieces like this one belonged to the buffet or service froid, where a dish had to survive time on display and still cut into neat mosaic slices.