No. 2529

Chicken Legs Shaped As Ducklings

Cuisses de Poulet en forme de Canetons

Cut the leg three-quarters of an inch from the joint. Remove the bones belonging to the second joint, as well as a third part of the drumsticks; stuff the legs with quenelle forcemeat (No. 89), introducing into it half as much foies-gras forcemeat (No. 78); mix in a third as much small three-sixteenths of an inch squares of tongue and mushroom, half of each, and raw fine herbs. Shape them to represent ducklings. Put in a sautoir some thin slices of fat pork and place the ducklings one beside the other. Braise, cool and pare off the under parts neatly, so that these imitated ducklings can stand plumb on their base, then glaze them with white chaudfroid (No. 596), and form the wings with crawfish claws. Make artificial eyes and form the beak by cutting the bone slanting. Surround with green parsley leaves, and serve with a bowl of ravigote sauce (No. 623).

← No. 2528 Kingfish Fillets a la Valencay Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2530 Leg of Mutton a la Garrison →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold-buffet showpiece from Ranhofer's The Epicurean, built on boned, stuffed chicken legs. It assumes a professional kitchen with forcemeats, aspic and chaudfroid already on hand, so most of the work is in the components the numbered cross-references point to.

The hinge: bone out, then keep it coldThe hinge: bone out — Everything depends on removing the thigh bone and a third of the drumstick while leaving the skin intact, so the leg can be packed like a sausage casing and moulded. Chilling the boned legs before stuffing makes them easier to handle and shape, though Ranhofer does not call for it.
Cross-referenced componentsNo. 89 is Ranhofer's quenelle forcemeat, No. 78 his foies-gras forcemeat, No. 596 a white chaudfroid and No. 623 a ravigote sauce. Look up each numbered entry for its actual composition rather than assuming; any modern equivalent will do.
Sautoir and fat porkA sautoir is a straight-sided shallow pan with a lid, not a deep braiser. "Thin slices of fat pork" means sheets of fresh back fat or fatback used as a barding layer, sold as such at good butchers; unsmoked salt pork, blanched to draw out salt, is the usual substitute.
Braising the legsAdd stock partway up, cover, and cook gently; Ranhofer gives neither temperature nor time. Cook until the forcemeat centre reaches 165F/74C, then chill promptly, since the dish is served cold.
Cooling under weightCooling — Ranhofer says only 'braise, cool'; chill them fully before paring the base. Cold, firm forcemeat cuts clean; warm forcemeat smears and will not take a coat of chaudfroid.
GlazingChaudfroid must be applied at the point where it coats the back of a spoon but has not yet set, over a cold, dry, blotted surface. Two thin coats look better than one thick one, and a final brush of clear aspic seals it.
Wings, eyes and beakThe 'crawfish claws' are cooked crayfish pincers, shells only, pressed into the glaze. For eyes, cut small rounds of black truffle or blanched leek rather than anything inedible; the beak is the exposed drumstick bone, which Ranhofer says to cut slanting.
YieldRanhofer gives none. Figure one leg per person as a cold first course, or one per two people as part of a larger cold table, and count on the ravigote being passed separately in a sauceboat.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the restaurant's repertoire, and this entry sits in the chapter of garnishings for cold dishes, where the grand buffet of the period was assembled. Shaping one animal's meat to look like another was a standing convention of nineteenth-century garde-manger work: chicken legs became ducklings, forcemeat became hams and hedgehogs, and the trompe-l'oeil was the point rather than a deception. The technique that carries it is chaudfroid, literally "hot-cold" -- a sauce made hot, set with gelatin, and eaten cold -- generally traced to the French kitchens of the late eighteenth century and by Ranhofer's day the standard finish for anything served from a cold table. Dishes like this were built for display on the buffet or the sideboard of a private banquet.