No. 593

Chaudford, Bechamel Cream Sauce, with Tomato Puree and with Fecula

Sauces Chaudfroid, Bechamel a la Creme, Bechamel a la Puree de Tomates et a la Fecule

Bechamel Cream Chaudfroid.-Is made with bechamel reduced with fowl or fish essence well despumated, and half its quantity of white chicken or fish jelly added.

Bechamel Tomato Puree Chaudfroid.-Is a chaudfroid prepared the same as for the cream, adding to it a quarter of its quantity of red tomato puree strained through a very fine sieve.

With Fecula.-Boil a quart and a half of chicken broth with six gelatine leaves and when well dissolved thicken with four ounces of fecula previously diluted in cold water. Mix with this chaudfroid half a pint of cream, strain it through a tammy (No. 159), stir up well and dip into this chaudfroid once or several times the whole pieces of meat required to be glazed.

← No. 592 Boar Sauce Cold Sauces No. 594 Chaudfroid Brown and Game →

For the Modern Kitchen

Three variations on the same coating sauce, written for a professional kitchen that already had white jelly, tomato purée and a strong fowl essence on hand. The whole point of a chaudfroid is temperature control, so read that point first.

The hinge: coat at setting pointChaudfroid only clings if it is applied just as it begins to set — thick enough to nap the back of a spoon and leave a clean line. Stir the pan over ice, test on a chilled spoon, and if it sets too far, rewarm gently rather than adding liquid, which thins the coat and makes it slide off.
FeculaFecula is starch, generally potato starch in period usage (arrowroot or corn starch behave similarly, arrowroot giving the clearest set). Four ounces is roughly three-quarters of a cup by volume; slake it in cold water before it meets the hot broth.
Gelatine leavesNineteenth-century leaf gelatine was not standardised, so six leaves is only an approximation of today's sheets (about 2 g each, gold or silver grade). With four ounces of starch also in the pot, the gelatine is a supporting setter, not the whole structure — judge by the spoon test rather than by counting sheets.
QuantitiesA quart and a half of broth plus half a pint of cream yields about a quart and three-quarters of sauce, enough to glaze a full platter of chicken suprêmes, fish fillets or galantine slices with sauce left in the pan for a second coat.
DespumatedSimply skimmed clean — the essence is simmered and the grey scum and fat lifted off repeatedly until it runs clear. Any fat left behind will bloom dull on the finished glaze.
White chicken or fish jellyA strong, naturally gelatinous stock: chicken feet, wings and knuckle for the fowl version, sole bones and heads for the fish, reduced until it sets firm when chilled. A good unflavoured commercial demi-glace substitute does not exist here; bloomed gelatine in concentrated stock is the practical stand-in.
TammyA tammy (No. 159) is a worsted or fine cloth strainer, worked by twisting the cloth between two people. A fine chinois lined with a double layer of rinsed muslin does the same job, and a stick blender before straining will save effort on the starch version.
Tomato puréeA quarter of the sauce's volume in strained tomato purée means an unsweetened, unseasoned reduction of fresh tomatoes, not modern canned paste, which is far more concentrated and much darker. If using paste, start with a spoonful and judge by colour — the aim is pale coral, not brick red.
Holding the finished piecesCoated items were traditionally left in a cool larder to firm. With cream, stock and cooked meat all in play, set and hold them in the refrigerator, and bring them out no more than half an hour before serving.

A Little History

These entries come from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous record of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and they read like what they are: cross-referenced notes for cooks who already knew the base sauces. Chaud-froid means "hot-cold" — a sauce made hot, then served cold and set, so that a poached bird or fish could be masked in a smooth opaque coat and decorated with truffle, tarragon or hard-boiled egg white. The name is often traced to an eighteenth-century French kitchen where a hot dish had to be served cold at short notice, though that story is traditional rather than documented. What the three variants show is the logic of the classical repertoire in miniature: one white sauce, adjusted with essence and jelly for gloss, with tomato purée for colour, or built on starch when a firmer and cheaper coat was wanted. The technique dominated grand cold buffet work through the age of the elaborate pièce montée, and it survives today mainly in competition cookery and in the glazed terrines of old-line charcuterie.