No. 2543

Small "pains" of Chicken a l'Ecarlate

Petits Pains de Volaille a l'Ecarlate

This entree requires to be dressed on a wooden foundation fastened on a dish; cover it with white paper, and decorate its thickness with a border in relief; in the center of this foundation place a wooden support also covered, it being as high as a six-sided timbale mold about the same size as timbale No. 1, Fig. 137. Pound the white meats of a large chicken with an equal quantity of foies-gras, both to be cooked; add two spoonfuls of veloute sauce (No. 415), season and strain through a sieve. Put this pulp into a thin metal vessel, and mix in an equal quantity of liquid blond chaudfroid (No. 596), and four spoonfuls of cooked truffles cut in small dice. Incrust the molds on ice; coat with half-set jelly, and line the sides only with narrow strips of red beef tongue, cut the same height as the molds. Thicken the preparation on ice and with it fill the lined molds; leave to harden for one hour. When required for serving, dip the molds in hot water in order to unmold the "pains," and dress them on the foundation around the support, placing one on its summit; decorate all the tops with a large mushroom head channeled through the thickness and hollowed in the center so that it is capable of holding a small truffle ball. On the central "pain" fasten a small hatelet garnished with a truffle and cocks'-comb slightly larger than the rest.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A cold chicken-and-foie-gras mousse set in small timbale molds, lined with scarlet tongue and stacked on a decorative stand. Nearly half the instruction is display work that can be dropped without touching the dish itself.

The hinge: temperature controlEverything depends on working the mousse over ice so it thickens to the point of just holding a ribbon before it goes into the lined molds. Too warm and the truffle dice sink and the tongue strips float loose; fully set and it will not fill the mold cleanly.
À l'écarlate means the tongueThe name refers to the scarlet cured beef tongue lining the sides, not to any sauce or spice. Buy cooked cured tongue and cut it into strips exactly the height of the mold so the top edge is flush.
SpoonfulsRanhofer's "spoonful" is usually read as a tablespoon, though the book does not define it here. Two spoonfuls of velouté loosens the pounded meat; four spoonfuls of diced truffle is a luxury quantity that can be reduced without harm to the structure.
Chaudfroid and jellyBlond chaudfroid (No. 596) is a velouté-based sauce set with aspic; the half-set jelly used to coat the molds is clarified meat stock with gelatin. Both are what make the mousse sliceable, so any substitution needs to carry the same setting power — a well-gelled stock reduced until it is firm when cold.
Pounding, then sievingA food processor replaces the mortar. Work the cooked chicken breast and foie gras cold, then still push the purée through a fine sieve or tamis; the sieve, not the machine, is what gives this class of dish its texture.
Molds and unmoldingSix-sided timbale molds; the recipe gives no capacity, only that they match timbale No. 1, Fig. 137. Ramekins or dariole molds work. Dip briefly in hot water — long enough to release the jelly film, short enough to leave the mousse firm.
What to skipThe papered wooden socle, the central pillar and the hatelet (a decorative silver skewer) belong to nineteenth-century buffet display. Cocks' combs are not sold in ordinary markets. A chilled platter with the fluted mushroom caps and truffle centers keeps the intended look.
Yield and holdingThe recipe gives no weights, only the white meat of a large chicken with an equal quantity of foie gras, so the number of molds will vary. It is a cooked preparation served cold: keep it refrigerated until service and do not leave it standing on a warm buffet.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it belongs to the section on garnished cold dishes — the pieces that stood on a buffet or a service à la russe sideboard to be looked at as much as eaten. The papered wooden foundation, the tiered support and the ornamental skewer descend directly from the architectural cold work codified by Carême earlier in the century, where a socle raised the food to eye level and made a small quantity read as a set piece. À l'écarlate — "in scarlet" — is the old French kitchen term for beef tongue cured in brine, which turns it a deep red; here the color is the whole point of the garnish, striping the pale mousse from the outside. Ranhofer numbered his recipes so that one could refer sideways to another, which is why the reader is sent off to No. 415 and No. 596 rather than told how to make a sauce: the book assumes a brigade with those preparations already standing in the larder.