No. 420

Poeler Stock for Cooking Fowl or White Game Meat

Fond de Poele pour Cuire la Volaille et le Gibier Blanc

Poeler.—Consists in cooking fowls or white game meat, the breasts of which are covered with slices of peeled lemon, then barded and cooked in a rich stock having it reach to half their heighth. To make the stock cut up one pound of fat pork, and half a pound of unsmoked ham into quarter inch squares; one pound of carrots and as many onions, both minced, a garnished bouquet of bay leaf and as much thyme, fry the whole lightly in half a pound of butter, adding a bunch of basil garnished with two cloves, mace, and a clove of garlic; moisten all with two quarts of veal blond (No. 423), add salt, ground pepper.

← No. 419 Mirepoix Stock and Dry Mirepoix Stocks, Essences & Auxiliaries No. 421 Brown, Espagnole or Spanish Sauce Stock →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is one of Ranhofer's foundation preparations: not a dish but the aromatic cooking medium for poêler, the half-submerged pot-roast that keeps a bird's breast pale and moist. The stock is made first, then the fowl goes into it.

The hinge: liquid to half height onlyThe bird sits in stock reaching only halfway up, so the submerged part braises while the exposed breast cooks above the liquid. Ranhofer does not say the vessel is covered, though poêler is normally done in a closed pot. More liquid moves the method towards poaching and loses the point of it.
Oven or stovetop heatRanhofer gives no temperature and no cooking time. As a modern equivalent, a covered pot at about 325°F, or the barest stovetop simmer with the lid on, suits the method; a 4–5 lb chicken will take roughly 1¼ hours, white game less.
BardedWrapped in a sheet of pork fatback tied on with string. Ask a butcher for fatback or use thinly sliced unsmoked fat bacon; the lemon slices go directly on the breast, under the barding.
Fat pork and unsmoked ham"Fat pork" is salt pork or fatback; "unsmoked ham" is fresh or wet-cured ham, not a smoked supermarket ham, whose smoke would dominate the whole stock. Green bacon or fresh pork shoulder stands in.
Veal blondHis No. 423, a pale veal stock, chosen so nothing darkens the bird. Any light veal or chicken stock serves; avoid a dark browned stock.
Garnished bouquetA bouquet garni — herbs tied in a bundle, here bay and thyme, with a second bundle of basil holding two cloves, a blade of mace and a garlic clove. Tie them so they can be pulled out whole.
Salt with restraintA pound of fat pork and half a pound of ham release a good deal of salt over long cooking, even though the recipe calls for added salt. Season lightly at the start and correct at the end.
Fat and yieldThe pound and a half of fat (fat pork plus butter) is period practice and can be cut back without harming the method. Skim the fat when the bird comes out, then reduce and strain the remaining liquid for a sauce.

A Little History

Poêler is generally traced to the poêle — a word that covers both the pan and the stove — and describes a French method that sits between roasting and braising: a bird set on a bed of diced pork, ham and root vegetables, half-bathed in light stock, and cooked covered so that it never browns. Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a full working system rather than a collection of dishes, which is why a preparation like this one carries a number and cross-references (to his mirepoix at No. 419 and veal blond at No. 423) instead of a serving suggestion. The lemon slices laid over the breast are often said to guard against discolouration in white meat, the same instinct that produced blanc cooking liquids for sweetbreads and poultry. "White game" in this context is usually taken to mean pheasant and partridge — birds whose pale flesh dries out under dry roasting heat, and which the half-submerged pot handles better.