No. 397

Fumet of Partridge or Other Game

Fumet de Perdreaux ou d'autres Gibiers

Cut four ounces of onions into slices, put them into a well buttered saucepan with four ounces of sliced carrots, and lay on top eight ounces of sliced ham, four ounces of mushroom parings, two pounds of young rabbit and two pounds of partridge, add a pint of white wine and reduce to a glaze; moisten with a quart of broth (No. 187), cover the saucepan, and let boil and reduce on a brisk fire, moderating the heat when the liquid is reduced to three-quarters, then continue reducing until it has fallen again to a glaze. Add four quarts of game broth (No. 195), a tablespoonful of allspice (whole), a bunch of parsley garnished with celery, bay leaf, and thyme, and let cook for an hour and a half. Strain this through a napkin, put it back on the fire to clarify with two partridge breasts and one pound of lean veal, both well chopped; dilute it with half a bottle of white wine, stir well, and take it off the fire at the first boil; as soon as the fumet is very clear, strain it through a napkin.

← No. 396 Raw Fine Herbs Stocks, Essences & Auxiliaries No. 398 Chicken or Game Glaze →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a concentrated game essence in the Escoffier-era sense: a stock built on a double glaze, then clarified to absolute clarity so it can lift a sauce or a game consommé. The hinge is the two reductions to glaze before any of the four quarts of game broth goes in; skip them and you have thin broth rather than fumet.

Reduce twice, all the way downThe wine goes to a syrupy glaze on the bottom of the pan, then the quart of broth is reduced to a glaze again. Each stage sticks a layer of caramelised meat and vegetable sugars to the pan, which the next liquid dissolves. Watch the second reduction closely at the end — from glaze to scorched is a matter of a minute.
Quantities and yieldQuantities -- Ranhofer's pint is 16 fl oz and his quart 32 fl oz. He does not say what size bottle he means; if a modern 750 ml bottle is assumed, "half a bottle" is roughly 1 he how how much you finish with depends on how hard the 90 minutes is run. The recipe states no yield.
Fire levels"Brisk fire" is a hard boil. The text says to moderate the heat when the liquid is "reduced to three-quarters" — that is, once about a quarter has boiled away — and to carry on reducing more gently from there so the glaze does not catch.
The birds and the rabbitTwo pounds of partridge is roughly two dressed birds; guinea fowl, pheasant or squab work in their place. The two pounds of "young rabbit" is a weight, not necessarily a single animal; a farmed fryer will serve. He does not say whether bones and carcasses count toward the weight.
Mushroom paringsTrimmings, stems and peelings saved from other dishes. Any 4 oz of mushroom scraps will do; a few dried mushrooms rinsed and added give a comparable depth.
HamCured ham rather than a sweet-glazed supermarket one. A piece of prosciutto end, speck or unsmoked gammon sits in the right register, and heavy smoke will dominate the game — though he does not say which sort of ham he had in mind.
Whole allspiceA tablespoon of whole berries in four quarts is assertive but correct for game. Add them with the herb bundle, not earlier, and fish them out at the first straining — long contact turns the fumet medicinal.
Clarifying without egg whiteThe raft here is chopped partridge breast and lean veal, loosened with the wine (he does not give its temperature). Whisk the meat into the cool or barely warm fumet, then bring it up slowly; if the liquid is hot when the meat goes in, the proteins seize into lumps and clarify nothing. He pulls it at the first boil, which is right — a rolling boil breaks the raft and clouds the pot.
Straining through a napkinA double layer of rinsed, wrung-out cheesecloth or a fine cotton cloth in a sieve. Ladle rather than pour, and do not press the solids. Cool the fumet quickly and refrigerate; it keeps four days, freezes well, and reduces further to a glaze for sauces (see No. 398).

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its opening chapters are a working catalogue of the foundations French cooking of the period was built on — broths, essences, glazes, roux. A fumet is literally a scent or savour: not a stock to be eaten on its own but a concentrate whose whole purpose is to be added to something else, sharpening a game sauce or giving backbone to a consommé of pheasant. The cross-references to Nos. 187 and 195 are the point of the system; a great deal was prepared in advance rather than at the moment of service, because a brigade cooking à la carte for a Manhattan dining room needed the flavour of a day's game cookery available in a saucepan within seconds. That partridge and wild rabbit could be assumed in such quantity says a good deal about the American market game trade of the 1880s and 90s, which supplied restaurants on a commercial scale before the Lacey Act and later state laws ended it.