No. 2571

Larded Pullet with Jelly

Poularde Piquee a la Gelee

Break the breastbone of a not too fat pullet; fill in the breast and stomach with a large salpicon made of cooked veal udder, truffles and cocked foies-gras, mixed with a little fine galantine forcemeat (No. 65). Cut the legs from the pullet, truss, and steep the breast for two minutes in boiling water to stiffen the meats and facilitate the larding with lardons (No. 3, Fig. 52). Cook the pullet in a little stock (No. 194a), basting over frequently; finally glaze it at the oven door. When cold untruss, detach the legs and cut each of them in two, then cut both breasts in slices and return them to their former place. Lay the pullet on a wooden foundation covered with white paper and fastened on a dish; rearrange the two pieces of each leg, thrusting a small hatelet through, in their original places, only in a contrary direction; on each pinion set a pretty favor frill (No. 10). Surround the pullet with a thick piping of chopped jelly forced through a cornet and the bottom of the dish with a row of round peeled truffles all of the same size, then cook in wine and glaze over with a brush. A mayonnaise with fine herb sauce (No. 612) can always accompany this cold pieces.

← No. 2570 Pig's Head Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2572 Pyramid of Crustaceans a la Rochelaise and P →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a cold buffet centrepiece from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen, written for cooks who had a larding needle, a stock pot always going and a pastry cornet in their apron. The cooking is simple; the assembly is the work.

The hinge: carve, then rebuildThe bird is cooked whole, cooled completely, then the legs are detached and each cut in two, the breasts sliced and returned to their former place, so it reads as an intact pullet on the platter. Carve only when the bird is thoroughly cold, or the slices tear and the stuffing crumbles.
PulletA young hen, roughly 3 to 4 lb dressed. A supermarket roasting chicken of that weight is the direct equivalent; avoid anything over 5 lb, since the point is a shallow, evenly shaped breast that slices neatly.
Veal udderTetine de veau, a standard larder item in nineteenth-century French kitchens, poached and pressed for its bland gelatinous texture. It is effectively unobtainable now; blanched pork fatback or a little extra galantine forcemeat fills the same role in the salpicon.
SalpiconMeans nothing more than a mixture cut into small even dice, here bound with forcemeat so it sets firm when cold. Cut everything to the same size, about a quarter inch, or the sliced breast shows a ragged mosaic.
Lardons and the two-minute dipThe boiling-water dip firms the surface so a larding needle will draw strips of fatback through the skin without dragging it. Chilled fatback cut into long 1/8-inch batons works best; salt pork, rinsed, is the usual substitute.
Cook in a little stock, bastingCloser to braising than roasting: a modest amount of stock in the pan and frequent basting. The recipe gives neither oven heat nor timing; cook until a thigh reads 165F on a modern thermometer.
Glaze at the oven doorReduced stock brushed on and set with the residual heat of an open oven. A modern equivalent is a reduced, gelatin-rich stock painted on in thin coats while the bird is still warm, then chilled between coats.
Hatelets and favor frillsA hatelet is a decorative skewer, a favor frill the paper cuff slipped over the wing tip. Both are pure presentation and can be left out without touching the eating quality.
Chopped jelly and the truffle borderAspic set hard, chopped fine and piped through a paper cornet around the base. It must be set firm and worked cold and fast, or it slumps within minutes on the platter.
ServingA bird this size, sliced and reassembled, would plausibly serve 6 to 8 as part of a cold table. Ranhofer offers a mayonnaise with fine herb sauce as an optional accompaniment; a herbed mayonnaise made an hour ahead is the same thing.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the cold-dish chapters record a kind of cookery that was at its height in the last quarter of the nineteenth century: the buffet piece, or piece froide, built to be looked at down the length of a table before anyone ate it. The technique of cooking a bird, cooling it, carving it and reassembling the slices on their own carcass belongs to the grand service developed in France by Careme and codified in the great restaurant kitchens, where a garnish of turned truffles and piped aspic was as much part of the dish as the meat. Veal udder, which appears here without comment, is a fair marker of the distance travelled: it was an ordinary charcuterie ingredient in Ranhofer's day, prized for a soft neutral texture in forcemeats and salpicons, and it has essentially disappeared from English-speaking kitchens within a century.