No. 85

Veal Godiveau

Godiveau de Veau

Veal godiveau frequently takes the place of forcemeat and is excellent if well prepared.

Have a pound of fresh veal meat cut off from the kernel without any fat or nerves whatever; cut it up into inch pieces, and pass them twice through the machine (Fig. 47), or in case there be no machine, chop them up very finely. Have also a pound and a quarter of beef kidney suet, perfectly dry and brittle, remove all its skin and fibres, and chop it up very finely, seasoning with one ounce of general spices (No. 168). Pound well the veal, add to it the suet, and pound all together to a pulp, so as to form a smooth paste, then stir in four whole eggs singly, as well as four ounces of frangipane panada (No. 120), in small quantities at the time. After the godiveau is well pounded, put it away for two hours in a cool place, then pound it over again, moistening it gradually with ice-water or else small pieces of very clear and clean ice. When the godiveau becomes sufficiently soft, try its consistency, by poaching a quenelle of it in boiling water, and if found to be too firm, add a little more ice-water, but if not sufficiently consistent, pound one ounce more panada with one egg, and incorporate the farce slowly to the panada, or even the egg alone will answer.

← No. 84 Godiveau of Rabbit or Other Game Elementary Methods No. 86 Chicken Forcemeat for Mousseline →

For the Modern Kitchen

A classic pounded veal-and-suet forcemeat, built cold and lightened with ice water. Everything depends on keeping the mixture below about 45F while it works; if the suet warms and smears, the paste breaks and the poached quenelle turns greasy and coarse.

The "kernel" of vealThis is the noix, the rounded muscle from the top of the leg, sold now as veal top round or leg cushion. Trim every scrap of fat, silverskin and sinew, as the recipe insists, since a food processor will not break down connective tissue and it shows up as threads.
Beef kidney suetFresh, dry, crumbly suet from around the kidney, not packaged shredded suet, which contains flour and will not pound smooth. Ask a butcher; if it is at all soft or oily it is stale and the farce will taste tallowy. Chill it hard and strip off the papery membrane.
"General spices" (No. 168)Ranhofer's own compound seasoning; check No. 168 for its make-up before measuring, since how much of the ounce is salt determines how it behaves in roughly two and a quarter pounds of meat and fat. If you are substituting a salt-free spice blend, use about a teaspoon and salt the mixture separately at roughly 1.5 percent by weight.
Frangipane panada (No. 120)A thick cooked paste of flour, egg yolks, milk and butter, seasoned and stirred over heat until it leaves the pan, then cooled completely. It is the binder that keeps the quenelle tender rather than rubbery. Any panada must be stone cold before it goes into the farce.
Machine or mortarFig. 47 is the book's meat-chopping machine; grind twice through a small plate, or grind once and finish in a food processor. Pulse in short bursts with the bowl and blade pre-chilled, and stop the moment the paste is smooth. The two-hour rest in the cold is not optional; it lets the mixture firm before the second working.
The ice waterAdd it a spoonful at a time, or use small clean ice chips as written, working only until the farce slackens. The recipe sets no quantity; go by feel, not measure.
The test quenelleThe recipe says boiling water; poach a teaspoon of the mixture in water barely at a simmer instead, for a few minutes, since a rolling boil tears quenelles apart. Taste it for salt at this stage as well; a raw forcemeat tastes of nothing useful.
Yield and useRather more than the two and a quarter pounds of veal and suet, once the eggs, panada and ice-water are worked in; enough for a large quantity of quenelles or to line and stuff a pie or a galantine. It holds a day under refrigeration, closely covered, and freezes reasonably well raw.

A Little History

Godiveau is an old French kitchen word, generally traced to the sixteenth century and long associated with the fine forcemeat baked in tourtes, and the veal-and-kidney-suet version was a standard of the nineteenth-century professional kitchen: Carême gives versions of it, and Ranhofer, who ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, sets it here among his Elementary Methods as a building block rather than a dish. The suet, rather than pork fat, gives a farce firm enough to hold sharp quenelle shapes when poached, and the ice water adds moisture while keeping the fat from melting under the pestle, the same principle a modern cook applies by chilling the processor bowl. That the recipe offers a grinding machine while keeping the older instruction to chop by hand in reserve suggests mechanical mincers were in use in American professional kitchens but could not yet be assumed.