No. 65

Chopped Forcemeat for Chicken Galantines

Farce Hachis pour Galantines de Volaille

To prepare chopped farces or sausage-meat only lean meats without any skin or nerves are to be used, and fresh fat pork. Chop up both meat and pork and in some special cases they require to be pounded after being chopped.

Farce or chopped meats for galantines of poultry is prepared with one pound of chicken or other poultry meat, and one pound of fat pork. The chicken may be replaced by lean veal, or half pork and half veal; chop all up very fine, and season with three quarters to one ounce of spiced salt (No. 168); pound well for a few minutes, then add two whole eggs, and one gill of water or cream; chopped truffles or cooked fine herbs may also be added if desired.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's chopped farce is a working formula rather than a finished dish: two pounds of meat, seasoning, eggs and liquid, bound cold and used to fill a boned bird. A few of his terms and proportions need translating.

Keep everything coldThis is the hinge. Meat, fat, bowl, blades and eggs should all be refrigerator-cold or colder, and the mixture should go straight back into the cold if it warms while you work. Fat pork that softens and smears will break out as grease during poaching and leave the farce dry and grainy.
"Fat pork"Fresh, unsalted pork fatback or the hard fat from the back of the shoulder, not salt pork, bacon or belly. Any cured product will overwhelm the ounce of spiced salt already in the recipe.
A gillHalf a cup, 4 fl oz. Cream gives a slightly richer, softer set than water; either is added last so the mixture takes it up as an emulsion.
Spiced salt, No. 168Ranhofer's own blend of fine salt with aromatic spices ground together; check No. 168 for the exact proportions rather than assuming a list. Three quarters of an ounce to one ounce per two pounds of meat works out at roughly 2.5 to 3 percent by weight, part of which is spice rather than salt. If you substitute plain salt plus spices, weigh it rather than measuring by spoon.
Chopping and poundingHe means the knife and the mortar; a food processor does both. Pulse the diced meat and fat to a coarse mince, add the seasoning and pulse again until it looks sticky and cohesive, then work in the eggs and liquid. Stop as soon as it comes together, and do not let the bowl warm.
Poach a test spoonfulDrop a teaspoon of the mixture into barely simmering water for a couple of minutes and taste it cold. Raw forcemeat always tastes underseasoned, and cold food needs more salt than hot.
Yield and cookingAbout 2 1/2 lb of farce, enough to fill a boned 4-5 lb chicken. The recipe itself covers only the farce; if you go on to poach the galantine, take the centre to at least 165F, then press and chill it before slicing.
Truffles and fine herbsThe recipe calls for 'cooked' fine herbs, so whatever mixture you use should be sweated and cooled before it goes in; check Ranhofer's own fine herbs entry rather than assuming the classic parsley-chervil-chives-tarragon blend. Add truffle at the very end, folded through by hand, so the pieces stay visible in the cut slice.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's summary of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry sits in the elementary section precisely because a galantine was assumed knowledge in a professional kitchen of the period. The word galantine is generally traced to Old French forms related to gelée, jelly, which describes the finish rather than the filling: a bird is boned out, its skin packed with a farce of this kind, rolled tight, poached in stock, pressed under weight and served cold, usually glazed with aspic made from the poaching liquor. Ranhofer gives the forcemeat separately from the assembly because the same base, varied by meat and garnish, served for dozens of buffet pieces — the cold table was where a nineteenth-century restaurant showed off, and a sliced galantine displayed the kitchen's control of seasoning and binding in a way a hot dish could hide. His insistence on lean meat free of skin and sinew, and on fresh rather than salted pork fat, reflects a time when the cook broke down whole carcasses and had to specify which part of them was meant.</invoke>&