No. 733

Chicken or Game Quenelles Molded in a Spoon

Quenelles de Volaille et de Gibier Moulees a la Cuillere

To make these quenelles use either chicken or game quenelle forcemeat (No. 89); prepare them as described in No. 155. Dress them around a remove, and cover with either a half-glaze sauce (No. 413) made with the essence of game or else with veloute (No. 415). These quenelles can also be used by covering them with Villeroi sauce (No. 560), then bread-crumb and fry them to a fine color.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade, so this entry is really three cross-references and a serving suggestion. What it does not say out loud is the part that decides whether the quenelles succeed.

The hinge: never let the poaching water boilQuenelle forcemeat is bound by egg and coagulating protein, and a rolling boil bursts the quenelles and drives out the fat, leaving grey shreds in cloudy water. Hold the liquid at a bare tremble, somewhere around 170-175F, and cook until just firm to the touch.
"Molded in a spoon"Two dessert or tablespoons dipped in hot water, the forcemeat scooped with one and smoothed over with the other to form a three-sided oval, then slid into a buttered shallow pan. Modern kitchens still call this shape a quenelle and still make it exactly this way.
Chicken or game quenelle forcemeatNo. 89 is a pounded raw-meat forcemeat worked cold with a panada, butter and eggs and enriched with cream; check the cross-reference for which panada Ranhofer specifies. A food processor replaces the mortar, but the mixture must stay cold throughout or the emulsion breaks; chill the bowl and work in short pulses.
"Dress them around a remove"A remove was the substantial course that replaced the soup or fish at table -- a braised saddle, a roast bird, a large fricandeau. The quenelles are a border garnish, not a dish in themselves.
Half-glaze and veloutéHalf-glaze is demi-glace: brown sauce reduced with stock until it coats. Velouté here is the white version, chicken or veal stock thickened with a pale roux. Either can be bought or made ahead; both want to be barely thick enough to cling.
Villeroi sauce and fryingVilleroi is a velouté reduced with mushroom and truffle essence until it sets when cold. The poached quenelles must be thoroughly chilled, dipped, chilled again until the coating is firm, then crumbed and fried at about 350-360F. Frying a warm or wet-coated quenelle will burst it.
Game in practiceFarmed guinea fowl, pheasant or rabbit stand in for the wild game a kitchen like Delmonico's would have used. Lean game needs more butter and cream in the forcemeat than chicken does, or the quenelles come out dry and crumbly.
YieldThe entry gives no quantities; as a rough guide, about a pound of finished forcemeat should give something like 18 to 24 spoon quenelles, enough to border a platter for eight to ten. They poach well a few hours ahead and reheat in warm stock.

A Little History

This is entry 733 of Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the encyclopedic record of his thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the terseness is the point: the book was written for cooks who already knew Nos. 89, 155 and 413 by heart. The word quenelle is generally derived from the Alsatian and German Kn del, dumpling, and by the nineteenth century it meant specifically a fine pounded forcemeat poached in a shape -- the mark of a kitchen with staff, since a proper quenelle forcemeat once meant hours at the mortar and a sieve. Villeroi sauce is generally traced to the ducs de Villeroy and belongs to the same family of enrobing sauces that gave French cooking its crumbed-and-fried garnishes; Ranhofer offers it as an alternative finish.