No. 2553

Pheasant Stuffed a la Prince Orloff

Faisan Farci a la Prince Orloff

Open a fresh pheasant through the back; bone it, leaving on the pinions and drumsticks, then season the meats. Take all the meat from another fresh pheasant and chop it up finely, mixing in an equal quantity of chopped fresh fat pork; season this forcemeat and add to it a quarter of its quantity of cooked foies-gras cut in large dice and as much truffles. Use this preparation to fill the boned pheasant, bring the meats together and sew it up, giving it its original form; truss and brush over with butter, then wrap it in a fine cloth, tying it well, and cook it very slowly for an hour and a quarter in good stock (No. 194a). Drain off pheasant, untie and wrap it again in the same cloth after washing it, then let get cold. One hour before serving unwrap the pheasant, separate the back from the breast, cutting it off, then divide this in two lengthwise pieces; cut the two halves in transversal slices, reshape and put the breast back into its former place from whence it was taken. Cover the whole pheasant with a white chaudfroid sauce (No. 596) reduced with pheasant fumet (No. 397) and afterward thickened on ice. Place the pheasant on ice till needed and then decorate the pinions with paper frills (No. 10); now dress it on a small oval foundation covered over with white paper and fastened on a long dish; surround it with a thick cord of chopped jelly pushed through a pocket, and decorate the edges of the dish with jelly croutons (No. 2442) and two clusters of medium-sized stuffed truffles.

← No. 2552 Roast Peacock Adorned with Its Plumage Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2554 Chicken Pie—to Be Cut Up →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold buffet centerpiece from Ranhofer's Epicurean, written for a brigade with a larder full of cross-referenced preparations. The work is in the boning and the coating; the cooking itself is gentle poaching.

The hinge: keep the stock below a simmer"Cook it very slowly" points to gentle poaching, never bubbling; in modern terms that is liquid held somewhere around 170-180F. A hard simmer squeezes the forcemeat, splits the seam, and leaves the breast dry and grainy once it is chilled and sliced.
Two birds, one dishThe recipe consumes two pheasants: one boned to become the case, the second stripped entirely for the forcemeat. Farmed pheasant today runs 2 to 2.5 lb dressed, so figure 6 to 8 portions as a cold course.
Time and temperatureAn hour and a quarter suits a large bird packed solid with forcemeat. Judge by the center of the stuffing reaching 165F rather than by the clock, since the recipe gives no weight and a modern farmed pheasant may well be smaller.
The forcemeat proportionsEqual weights of pheasant meat and fresh fat pork (fatback, not cured belly), then a quarter of that total in diced cooked foie gras and the same again in truffle. Grind cold and keep it cold; the pork fat is what holds the slices together after chilling.
The clothA fine cloth means a rinsed square of muslin or cheesecloth, tied to hold the bird in its shape. It is used twice, so wash it between poaching and the cold rest, then let the bird set in it in the refrigerator until thoroughly cold.
Chaudfroid, in plain termsA white chaudfroid is a velouté or thick béchamel enriched with cream, fortified with pheasant fumet, and set with gelatin, then "thickened on ice" until it coats a spoon at the point of setting. Applied warmer it runs off; applied later it goes lumpy.
FumetThe pheasant fumet (No. 397) is a concentrated game stock, reduced hard; the carcasses, trimmings and bones of the two birds are the obvious source. Make it while the boned bird is poaching.
The dressing is scaffolding, not foodThe dressing is scaffolding -- The oval foundation is a socle, covered in white paper, used only to raise the bird on the platter, and the paper frills are pure decoration; neither is eaten. The chopped jelly piped from a pastry bag and the jelly croutons around the rim are aspic, garnish in the nineteenth-century manner but edible.
Carve before you coatThe breast is removed, split, sliced across, then pressed back into place so the whole bird can be glazed as one piece and served by lifting off ready-cut slices. Do this on a chilled bird, or the slices will not hold their line.

A Little History

Dishes styled à la Orloff are generally traced to the kitchens serving Prince Alexey Orlov, the Russian ambassador in Paris under Napoleon III, and to the grand-cuisine chefs of that circle; the name attaches to a family of preparations in which a roast or poached bird or saddle is carved, dressed slice by slice with a rich forcemeat or purée, then reassembled to look untouched. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for more than thirty years, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of that repertoire, and this recipe sits in his chapter on garnishings for cold dishes because it belongs to the age of the cold buffet, when a dining room's reputation rested on trompe-l'oeil centerpieces glazed in chaudfroid and framed with aspic. Its neighbors in the book, a peacock served in its own plumage on one side and a chicken pie on the other, mark the span Ranhofer worked across. The technique of boning a bird through the back, stuffing it, and poaching it in cloth to hold its shape is far older than the name, and survives in the galantine.