No. 387

Chicken Essence

Essence de Volaille

Fry one pound of sliced kernel of veal and a pound and a half of broken chicken bones in some butter without coloring them, adding two minced shallots, half a pound of minced carrots, and four ounces of onions. Moisten with one quart of white chicken bouillon (No. 188) and reduce to glaze; moisten again and reduce once more, then add a bunch of parsley garnished with two bay leaves and as much thyme, four cloves and half a bottleful of white wine; boil, skim, and cook slowly for half an hour, then strain through a napkin or silk sieve.

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For the Modern Kitchen

An intensely concentrated chicken and veal extract, built by reducing stock to a glaze twice over before the final short simmer. It is a seasoning liquid, not a soup base to be drunk on its own.

The hinge: reduce to glaze, twiceThe flavour comes from the two reductions sticking and caramelising lightly on the pan bottom, then dissolving back into the next addition of liquid. Let each moistening cook down until the pan is coated with a syrupy film and the fat separates, scrape it up with the next moistening, and do not let the glaze scorch dark or the essence turns bitter.
Kernel of vealThe noix, the rounded muscle from the top of the leg, sold now as veal round or veal cushion. Any lean stewing veal works; the point is lean gelatinous meat with no fat to cloud the result. Slice it thin so it gives up its juices quickly.
Chicken bonesA pound and a half of backs, wings and carcasses, cracked with a heavy knife or cleaver to expose the cartilage. Raw bones, not roast ones: they are fried in butter without coloring, which keeps the essence pale.
White chicken bouillon (No. 188)Ranhofer's white chicken stock, simmered from fowl and aromatics with no browning. A good unsalted or low-sodium chicken stock stands in; avoid anything roasted, dark or already salted, since the liquid is heavily reduced and any salt concentrates with it.
Half a bottleful of white wineRoughly 12 fl oz, near enough a modern half-bottle, though bottle sizes were not standardised then. Use something dry and unoaked.
Straining through a napkinLine a sieve with a doubled layer of damp muslin or a fine cloth and let the liquid fall through without pressing. Pressing forces fine solids into an essence whose whole point is clarity.
Total liquid and yieldThe recipe does not say how much bouillon the second moistening takes, and the finished quantity is small: after two reductions to glaze, little more than the half-bottle of wine remains. It keeps a few days refrigerated and freezes well in ice-cube trays.
How it is usedA spoonful at a time, to reinforce a sauce, a braise or a chicken velouté. It is not seasoned in the recipe because it is meant to be added to dishes that are.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years running the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and its opening section of stocks, essences and fumets is the load-bearing wall of the whole book: the preparations are numbered, and hundreds of later recipes simply cite one by number. An essence in this system sits above a plain stock: rather than starting with water, it starts with stock and reduces it repeatedly over fresh meat and bones, so that the flavour is concentrated twice over. The technique survives in modern practice mainly in the making of demi-glace and reduced jus. Recipes of this kind assume a brigade with a stockpot always on the stove and a use for every scrap of carcass, which is why they read as extravagant now: a pound of veal and a pound and a half of bones yield less than a quart of a liquid that is never served by itself.