No. 735

Godiveau of Veal, of Pike, Chicken or Game Quenelles

Quenelles de Godiveau de Veau, de Brochet, de Volaille ou de Gibier

Prepare the quenelles either with veal (No. 85) pike (No. 83) or else of chicken godiveau (No. 82), young rabbit or any other game. Divide it into several parts, then roll into strings three-quarters of an inch thick on to a table dredged with flour and cut them into inch lengths, roll and lengthen to the shape of a quenelle an inch and a half long. Poach in boiling, salted water. Veal godiveau quenelles are covered with Madeira Spanish sauce (No. 414), those of pike with bechamel (No. 409), those of chicken with supreme (No. 547) and those of game with demi-glaze (No. 413).

← No. 734 Fish Quenelles Molded, Pocket Chicken Quenel Garnishings No. 736 Ramisolle Garnishing →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes you have already made one of his godiveau forcemeats and are only shaping and poaching it here. The forcemeat itself is a cold emulsion of pounded meat, fat and egg, so temperature control is the whole game.

The hinge: poach, do not boilDespite the words "boiling, salted water," bring the water to a boil and then drop it back until the surface only quivers, around 170-180F. A rolling boil swells the egg-bound forcemeat too fast and the quenelles burst or turn spongy. Four to six minutes for this size; they are done when they float and feel firm but yielding.
What godiveau isA pounded forcemeat, classically veal with an equal or greater weight of beef kidney suet, bound with eggs and worked with crushed ice or iced water. The fish and poultry versions substitute pike or chicken breast. A food processor replaces the mortar; work in short pulses and keep everything refrigerator-cold or the fat breaks out.
Test one firstPoach a single quenelle before shaping the rest. If it falls apart, the mixture needs a little more egg or panada; if it is rubbery and dense, it has been overworked or needs more iced water or cream.
ShapingThree-quarter-inch ropes cut into one-inch lengths and rolled out to an inch and a half give roughly thumb-sized quenelles, the standard garnish size for a soup or a ragout. Flour the board lightly only; excess flour makes a gluey skin.
The sauce numbersMadeira Spanish sauce is espagnole finished with Madeira; bechamel is the familiar milk sauce; supreme is a chicken velouté enriched with cream; demi-glaze is demi-glace. Any competent modern version of these will serve, since Ranhofer's point is simply matching sauce to meat.
Yield and useA pound of forcemeat makes several dozen quenelles of this size, a garnish for a table rather than a course on its own. This entry sits among the garnishings for that reason.
Holding themPoached quenelles keep a day covered in their cooking liquid, refrigerated, and reheat gently in warm stock or sauce. Do not reheat by boiling.

A Little History

Godiveau is an old French kitchen word for a pounded forcemeat, recorded in French cookery long before Ranhofer and traditionally tied to veal and beef suet; in the version worked over ice — godiveau à la glace — the cold lets the fat carry far more liquid without separating. Quenelles made from it were a common garnish of the nineteenth-century restaurant kitchen, dropped into consommés, bedded under ragouts, or arranged around a fish. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York and author of The Epicurean (1894), organized his book so that a base preparation is made once and then cross-referenced dozens of times, which is why this entry is barely a paragraph: the real labor sits back in numbers 82, 83 and 85, and the pairing of a specific sauce with each meat is the kind of fixed convention a brigade could execute without discussion.