No. 2616

Turkey or Goose in Daube

Dindon ou Oie en Daube

Draw a turkey cock; singe and lard it with large lardons (No. 2, Fig. 52); season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and chives, then stuff it with chicken quenelle forcemeat (No. 89), into which mix quarter-inch squares of red beef tongue and lean ham. Place the turkey in a braziere lined with slices of fat pork, carrots, minced onions, a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme, bay leaf, a clove of garlic, a gill of brandy and a split knuckle of veal. Boil, skim and simmer gently and allow to braise for three and a half to four hours. Blanch separately some carrots and small onions, both trimmed into five-eighths of an inch balls, and when the turkey is partly cooked remove it from its stock, strain the liquid, wash the saucepan, and return the turkey to it with its strained and skimmed stock; range around the carrots and onions and finish cooking the vegetables and turkey slowly. When well done, drain, untruss and lay it in an oval stone or tin vessel with the vegetable around, pour the stock (which should be sufficiently consistent to form a jelly) over and let cool off, then unmold the turkey on a long cold dish; surround the base with chopped jelly and jelly croutons (No. 2442).

A goose in daube can be prepared the same way as the turkey.

← No. 2615 Turkey in Daube a la Verneuil Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2617 Young Turkey Breasts, Gustave Dore →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's daube is a whole braised bird set in its own jelly and served cold. The braise itself is straightforward; the hinge is the stock, which has to be gelatinous enough to set firm without gelatin added.

The jelly is the pointThe split veal knuckle is not flavoring, it is the setting agent. If your stock does not set to a firm wobble on a chilled saucer, reduce it further or add a pig's trotter or extra veal bones; without that, the daube will not unmold.
A gillHalf a cup, 4 fl oz. The brandy goes in at the start and cooks down through the braise.
BraziereA heavy braising pan with a tight lid, deep enough to hold the bird. A large oval Dutch oven or a covered roasting pan works. The bird should sit close-fitting so the stock comes well up its sides.
Turkey cockRanhofer means a mature male bird, often 15 lb or more. A 10-12 lb bird suits the timing given; anything much larger will need longer, and anything much smaller will overcook. Judge by the thigh reaching 175F rather than by the clock.
Larding and forcemeatLardons here are strips of fresh pork fatback drawn through the breast with a larding needle; salt pork rinsed of its cure is the usual substitute. The chicken quenelle forcemeat is a pounded raw-chicken and fat farce studded with diced tongue and ham, and it must reach 165F along with the bird, so pack it loosely.
TimingThree and a half to four hours at a bare simmer, not a boil. A hard boil shreds the breast and clouds the stock, which ruins the jelly.
The vegetable ballsCarrots and onions turned to five-eighths-inch spheres go in only for the last stretch. Blanching first keeps them from muddying the strained stock, and they will fall apart if given the full four hours.
CoolingA whole bird in warm stock passes slowly through the temperature range where bacteria multiply. Set the mold in an ice bath to bring it down fast, then refrigerate overnight to set. Do not leave it on the counter to cool as nineteenth-century kitchens did.
ServingUnmold onto a cold platter, surround with chopped aspic and cut jelly croutons. A 10-12 lb bird served cold and sliced will feed 12 to 16 as part of 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 this recipe belongs to its long section of cold pieces meant to stand on a buffet table through a whole evening. Daube is a Provençal term for a long slow braise, and the daubière is the narrow-necked earthenware pot associated with the dish; by the nineteenth century French professional kitchens had extended the term to any meat braised at length in an aromatic stock, and en daube in the cold-dish sense meant the braise left to set in its own jelly. The technique answered a practical need before mechanical refrigeration was common in restaurants: a bird sealed in a firm aspic keeps far better than a roast, travels to the sideboard intact, and cuts into clean slices ringed with amber. The turned carrots and onions, the diced tongue and ham in the forcemeat, and the chopped jelly around the base are all there for the cross-section, which was the whole display.