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No. 2526

Miscellaneous Cold Hatelets, Bellevue Vegetables; Croutons, Chopped Transparent Jelly and Sticky Chopped Jelly

Hatelets Froids Divers en Bellevue, de Legumes; de Croutons et Gelee Hachee Transparente et de Gelee Hachee Collante

Cold hatelets are to be prepared with plain or double white cocks-combs enveloped in jelly, and round, black, unpeeled truffles glazed over with meat glaze (No. 402). Others are made of trussed crawfish from which the small legs have been suppressed and the body shells rubbed over with a little oil, channeled mushrooms (No. 118) coated with jelly, chicken or game quenelles (No. 91), decorated and molded in Bellevue or simply covered, or else carved vegetables blanched separately. These hatelets can also be composed of crawfish, lemons, truffles and mushrooms, having one small glazed truffle on top, a lightly oiled trussed crawfish under this truffle, and then a fine channeled glazed mushroom, having the upper part rounded, then a lemon cut into points; first one-half of the lemon, placed with the points upward, then a round piece of truffle and the other half of the lemon. the points downward, and finished with a glazed channeled mushroom, having the rounded end toward the bottom.

Lean Hatelets for Fish are composed of shrimps, crawfish, truffles, mushrooms or lemon. Cocks'-combs are not admissible for this kind of hatelets.

Bellevue Hatelets.-Prepare these hatelets as follows: Cut out with a tin tube three-fourths of an inch in diameter and an eighth of an inch in thickness, small rounds of chicken, cooked beef tongue and truffles; take pieces from the center with a smaller tin tube one-eighth of an inch in diameter; run a hatelet through six of these rounds, beginning first by putting a small round whole truffle, then a round of chicken, tongue and truffle; begin again with another round of chicken, tongue and truffle, leaving a space between each. Cut off the upper crust of a loaf of bread, this to be six inches high; spread over the top to replace the crust a layer of butter a quarter of an inch thick; on top place the hatelet cases or molds (Fig. 501); run through the metal hatelets decorated with the rounds exactly in the center, stand them upright, then fill the molds with cold jelly (No. 103) and keep them in a cool place for several hours. When ready to serve the pieces unmold these hatelets and run a fine unpeeled, round and black truffle on each one, then stick them into the piece. Carrots and turnips can be substituted for the chicken and tongue.

Vegetable Hatelets.—These hatelets are composed of vegetables or roots, imitating vases of various kinds; they are turned and carved with a knife, and formed of several pieces, then filled with artificial flowers made of vegetables, such as roses, camelias, lilies, or daisies; these flowers are colored by dipping them in a solution of aniline dissolved in alcohol and diluted with water. If these flowers are well made they can imitate the natural ones most marvelously. They can be used plain, without any coloring, but this is a matter of taste.

For Chopped Transparent Jelly the fragments of jelly croutons are generally used, chopping them on a moistened cloth with a large knife; they should be chopped sufficiently fine, still not allowing them to get thick looking; they may also be cut into small fine lengthwise strips, afterward cutting them across in small squares; in this way they are sure to remain transparent.

Sticky Chopped Jelly is used for pushing through a pocket or paper cornet around a cold meat piece, and is also frequently used to cover the surface of a high foundation that is to be used as a support. In order to obtain a sticky jelly, chop it up on a wet cloth, and sprinkle it over from time to time with some hot water, until it forms into a soft compact mass. This must be used at once.

← No. 2525 Hams of Chicken with Zampino Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2527 Kernel of Veal with Mayonnaise Tomatoed Sauc →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

This is a set of assembly instructions for cold-buffet garnish rather than a dish in itself: decorative skewers, aspic-set medallions and two textures of chopped jelly. Most of it is still workable, but one component is not.

The aniline colouringThe vegetable flowers are tinted with aniline dissolved in alcohol and thinned with water. Aniline is an industrial amine, readily absorbed through skin, toxic to blood (methaemoglobinaemia) and classed as a carcinogen; nineteenth-century "aniline colours" sold for kitchen use were unregulated coal-tar dyes of unknown composition. Nothing here should be coloured by that method, and a garnish sitting on food is not a safe place for it.
Hatelet / atteletA hâtelet is an ornamental skewer, usually silver or plated, with a decorative head, used to stand garnish upright on a cold piece. It is decoration, not a serving portion, and the food strung on it was often looked at more than eaten.
Bellevue"En bellevue" means set in or masked with clear aspic so the decoration shows through. The moulds here sit on the buttered bread block while the jelly sets around the upright skewer.
Jelly No. 103 and meat glaze No. 402These are Ranhofer's clarified aspic and his glace de viande — stock reduced until it sets to a syrupy, near-solid glaze. Powdered gelatine and commercial glace are the modern stand-ins; the aspic must be at the point of setting, cool but still pourable, or it will melt the decoration.
Cocks'-combsBlanched, peeled and poached cockscombs were a standard luxury garnish through the nineteenth century and are effectively unobtainable now outside specialist offal butchers. Ranhofer notes they are barred from fish garnishes, which follows the old lean/fat distinction of the church calendar.
Channelled mushroomsFluted, or turned, mushroom caps — spiral grooves cut into the cap with the tip of a small knife. Firm white buttons work; they need lemon juice at once or they brown before the glaze goes on.
The cut-out roundsThree-quarters of an inch is about 19 mm and an eighth of an inch about 3 mm, so these are thin coin-sized discs of chicken breast, cooked tongue and truffle, with the centres punched out so the skewer passes cleanly. The "tin tube" is simply a plain round cutter.
The bread blockA loaf six inches high with its top crust cut off and replaced by a quarter-inch layer of butter is a work-stand: it holds the skewers dead upright while the moulds fill and chill. Any block that grips a skewer will do the same job; the bread is not eaten.
Chopped jelly, two waysTransparent chopped jelly is made from jelly-crouton trimmings, chopped on a moistened cloth with a large knife, or cut into fine lengthwise strips then across into squares; stop before it turns cloudy and pasty. Sticky jelly is the same aspic chopped on a wet cloth and sprinkled with hot water until it binds into a soft compact mass; it must be used at once.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's summary of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry belongs to its most theatrical department: the cold buffet, where a ham or a galantine was presented on a socle with skewers rising out of it like standards. The hâtelet descends from the elaborate cold work codified by Carême earlier in the century, when garnish had a heraldic function — height, symmetry and glitter announced the importance of the piece before anyone tasted it. By Ranhofer's day the silver skewer, the truffle, the crawfish and the fluted mushroom had settled into a fixed vocabulary that any classically trained garde-manger could read at a glance. Chopped aspic, scattered or piped around a base, did the same duty at floor level, and the distinction he draws between the transparent kind and the sticky kind is purely practical: one sparkles, the other holds its place on a vertical surface. The carved vegetable roses and camellias mark the outer edge of the style, decoration that had stopped pretending to be food at all — and, in this case, decoration that had reached for the chemical industry to get its colours.