No. 2535

Mousselines of Foiles-Gras a la Dana

Mousselines de Foies-Gras a la Dana

Prepare a frothy preparation with foies-gras in the following manner: Pound one pound of foies-gras taken from a terrine, pass the pulp through a sieve, season, lay it in a thin iron vessel and beat well, adding a gill of melted glaze (No. 402) and two gills of brown chaudfroid sauce (No. 594), to make the preparation of a good consistency when cold. After it has become smooth stir in slowly the equal quantity of a pint of well-drained whipped cream without sugar. Range on pounded ice fifteen quenelle molds (Fig. 76); cover the insides of these to half their height with the frothy preparation, forming a hollow in the center, and into this lay a slice of foies-gras three-sixteenths of an inch thick and cut egg-shaped; finish filling the molds with the same preparation, smooth the tops, having them perfectly flat, and then set the molds on ice for one hour. Dip them into hot water, unmold the mousselines on a cold baking sheet and cover each one with brown chaudfroid sauce (No. 594). After this has become quite cold dress the mousselines in a pyramid inside a jelly border. Garnish around the border with clear jelly cut into very small dice, and outside of this place a row of jelly croutons (No. 2442).

← No. 2534 Lobster or Spiny Lobster with Mayonnaise Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2536 Mousseline of Kingfish a la Briere →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold assembly rather than a cooked dish: everything is already cooked, and the work is in temperature control and setting. Ranhofer assumes you have a stocked garde-manger, so the cross-references do most of the heavy lifting.

The hinge: keep everything coldThe mousse is stabilized by the gelatin in the glaze and chaudfroid, not by cooking. If the base warms while you fold in the cream it will slacken; if it chills too far before folding it will be hard to fold smoothly. Work over ice, and get the molds filled before the base begins to set.
GillA gill is half a cup. So one gill of melted glaze is 4 fl oz, two gills of brown chaudfroid is 8 fl oz.
"Equal quantity of a pint"This phrasing is genuinely ambiguous in the original. Read literally it is one pint of whipped cream, measured after whipping and draining; "equal quantity" appears to mean equal in bulk to the seasoned foie gras base. Judge by consistency rather than by the number.
Glaze and brown chaudfroidNo. 402 is glace de viande, veal or beef stock reduced to a syrup that sets hard when cold. No. 594 is demi-glace fortified with aspic so it sets to a coating consistency. Both contribute gelatin, so substituting an unreduced stock will leave the mousse soft.
"A thin iron vessel"He wants a thin-walled bowl that transmits cold quickly from the ice beneath. Stainless steel does the same job without the iron taste that plain iron gives an acidic or delicate mixture.
Quenelle moldsSmall oval metal molds. Dariole molds, oval ramekins or even silicone half-egg molds will serve; metal releases most readily after the brief dip in hot water the recipe directs.
Foies-gras from a terrineThis means cooked foie gras terrine, not raw lobe. Buy a prepared terrine or bloc; a mi-cuit will pound and sieve most easily. Note that foie gras production and sale are restricted in some jurisdictions.
Yield and serviceFifteen mousselines, so a garnish for a large cold buffet or a first course for twelve to fifteen. Assemble on the serving day and hold refrigerated; the aspic coat dulls and cracks if it sits more than a few hours, and the mousse itself should not stand unrefrigerated on a buffet.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its cold-buffet chapters are a detailed English-language account of nineteenth-century garde-manger work. A mousseline in this sense is not the sauce of the same name but a sieved forcemeat or pur"e lightened with whipped cream and set with gelatin, the technique that also produced cold salmon, ham and chicken mousses on the same sideboard. Ranhofer routinely attached the names of Delmonico's patrons and public figures to his dishes, so "à la Dana" almost certainly honors a particular person rather than describing a method, though the book itself gives no attribution. The structure of the finished piece, a pyramid of mousselines inside a ring of aspic with diced jelly and jelly croutons around it, is characteristic of the period: the garnish was architectural, meant to survive an hour on a buffet and to be looked at as much as eaten.