No. 843

Bateaux of Fat Livers, Russian Style

Bateaux de Foies-Gras a la Russe

Butter some boat-shaped tartlet molds, and line them with chicken forcemeat (No. 62), leaving an empty space in the center which fill with a cooked and pounded foies-gras preparation rubbed through a sieve, and mixed with a quarter of its quantity of chopped mushrooms, also a few spoonfuls of Madeira sauce (No. 492). Cover this preparation with a layer of the forcemeat, and put the molds to poach in a slow oven in a baking pan, with a little boiling water poured into the bottom. Cool them off slightly before unmolding, then bread-crumb them, English style (No. 13), plunge them in hot fat to heat well while coloring, drain and dress on napkins.

← No. 842 Attereaux of Turkey or Game Hot Side Dishes No. 844 Bondons of Pickerel a la Walton →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade, with cross-references to numbered preparations elsewhere in The Epicurean. The whole dish turns on the forcemeat being sealed: any gap in the top layer and the foie gras filling leaks out in the fryer.

Bateaux and the molds"Bateaux" are boats — the pointed oval tins sold today as barquette molds, about 3 inches long. Butter them thoroughly and chill before lining, or the poached forcemeat will not release cleanly.
Chicken forcemeat (No. 62)Ranhofer's chicken quenelle forcemeats are raw chicken pounded with a panada and enriching fat, then sieved — in modern terms close to a mousseline, which can be made in a food processor and passed through a fine sieve. Line the molds with a layer about a quarter inch thick, keeping it cold at every stage so it does not break.
Foie gras filling"Cooked and pounded foies-gras preparation" means a cooked terrine or pâté de foie gras worked smooth, not raw liver. A good tinned or fresh pâté, sieved and slackened with the Madeira sauce, does the same job.
Madeira sauce (No. 492)A demi-glace finished with Madeira. A few spoonfuls only — the filling should be a thick paste, not a sauce, or it will burst the casing during frying.
A slow ovenRoughly 275-300F; the book gives no figure. The water in the pan should be simmering when it goes in and must not be allowed to boil hard, which would puff and coarsen the forcemeat. Poach until the centers are set and firm to the touch — perhaps 20 to 25 minutes for barquette-sized molds — with about 160F at the center as a useful benchmark.
Breading English style (No. 13)Beaten egg, then fine breadcrumbs (a light dusting of flour first helps dry the surface). Chill the unmolded bateaux until cold and firm first, and give them a second egg-and-crumb coat if any seam looks thin.
Hot fat375F. The interior is already cooked, so this is a matter of coloring and heating through — one to two minutes. Lower fat lets the crumb absorb grease and the filling soften and escape.
Dressing on napkinsA folded linen napkin on the platter absorbed the frying fat. Paper serves the same purpose now.
YieldRanhofer gives no quantities. As a rough guide, about a cup of forcemeat with half a cup of filling would fill a dozen small barquettes, enough for a side dish at a many-course dinner or a canape course on its own.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the restaurant's repertoire, and it is organized like a professional kitchen rather than a home cookbook — hence the numbered cross-references that make a single recipe unreadable without the rest of the volume. "Hot side dishes" covers the small hot composed items that filled out a long menu between the heavier courses. Foie gras itself came largely from Strasbourg and the southwest of France in tins and terrines, and the ability to serve it hot, sealed inside a chicken mousseline and fried to order, was the sort of labor-intensive flourish that justified Delmonico's prices.