No. 2540

Mousseline of Woodcock

Mousseline de Becasses

Simply dress this on a channeled rice croustade foundation fastened on a dish. Remove some rounds of cooked truffles with a cutter, and use them to decorate symmetrically the interior sides and bottom of a plain cylindrical mold (Fig. 150) imbedded in ice, dipping them one by one in half-set jelly to be able to fasten them on, then coat over the entire inside of the mold lightly with half-set jelly. Pound the breast meats of three cooked woodcock with an equal quantity of cooked foies-gras, half as much cooked and chopped-up truffles and a very little of the cooked intestines from the birds; season and pass the whole through a sieve. Put this pulp into a thin metal vessel and stir into it gradually three gills of brown chaudfroid sauce (No. 594), increased with a few spoonfuls of warmed jelly (No. 103); the chaudfroid sauce should be reduced with a game fumet (No. 397) prepared with the woodcock legs and bones; thicken the preparation properly by stirring it on ice and with it fill up the mold; then harden it on ice for one hour. When needed dip the mold in hot water, wipe dry and invert the mousseline on the rice foundation, surrounding it with a bed of chopped jelly.

← No. 2539 Mousseline of Pullet Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2541 Tenderloin of Mutton a la Henry Olay →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold game mousse set in aspic, from the era when a buffet centerpiece was expected to be architecture as much as food. Nothing here is difficult, but everything depends on gelatin temperature.

The hinge: "half-set" jellyEvery step turns on aspic held at the point where it flows but still clings — syrupy and just beginning to thicken. Warmer and the truffle rounds slide down the mold; cooler and it sets in lumps. Work over a bowl of ice water and stir constantly, rewarming briefly if it goes too far.
Three gillsA gill is half a cup, so three gills of chaudfroid is 1 1/2 cups, plus the few spoonfuls of warm jelly. Add it to the pounded meat gradually; dumping it in at once gives a grainy, separated mousse.
Chaudfroid, in shortNo. 594 is Ranhofer's brown chaudfroid, a brown sauce carrying enough aspic to set firm when cold. Here the recipe directs that it be reduced with a game fumet (No. 397) made from the woodcock legs and bones, so make that stock first — it is the flavor of the dish, not an accessory.
Sourcing the birdsWoodcock is a migratory game bird and cannot legally be sold in the United States; it comes only from a licensed hunter in season. Rules on selling European woodcock vary by country. Without access to game, a substitute such as wild duck breast, squab or pigeon changes the flavor but not the method.
The trail"The cooked intestines from the birds" is the trail, traditionally roasted inside the woodcock and prized for its liver-like richness. It is potent; a very little, as written, is the right amount, and it can be left out with no harm to the texture.
Sieve, then blendPounding in a mortar and passing through a tamis was the only route to smoothness in 1894. A food processor gets you most of the way, but still press the puree through a fine sieve afterward — sinew and truffle grit will otherwise show in a mousse this pale-textured.
Chilling timeOne hour on ice suits a small mold. A 1-quart cylinder needs three to four hours in the refrigerator to set through, and it will unmold more cleanly for having chilled longer.
UnmoldingDip for five to ten seconds only, wipe, and invert. Any longer and the decorated aspic layer melts into a smear rather than releasing whole.
The croustade and yieldThe channeled rice foundation is a molded, pressed base whose only job is height; a plain platter works if you skip the display. The recipe gives no yield: three woodcock breasts make a small mousseline, perhaps six to eight portions as part of a cold table, sliced in wedges.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years at Delmonico's, and this entry sits in the chapter of cold garnishings — the domain of the garde-manger, whose work was judged largely by eye. Mousselines of this kind, meat pounded to a paste, lightened with sauce and aspic, and set in a truffle-lined mold, were the standard grammar of the nineteenth-century cold buffet, descended from the French chaud-froid technique, whose origins are older and less securely attributable than the usual accounts suggest. Woodcock had particular prestige: the birds were small, hard to shoot, seasonal, and traditionally cooked undrawn so the trail could be eaten, which made them a marker of a kitchen with real game connections. The dish also shows how completely the economics have shifted. Ranhofer expected three woodcock, a block of foie gras and a handful of truffles to be routine stock for a garnish, and market hunting made that possible; the American laws that ended the commercial sale of migratory birds in the following decades are the reason an American restaurant cannot serve the woodcock this line calls for today.