No. 850

Brissotins of Game, Lyonnese

Brissotins de Gibier a la Lyonnaise

Butter some timbale molds (No. 2, Fig. 137), fill them with game and cream forcemeat (No. 75), and poach in a slow oven, laying them in a baking pan and pouring boiling water around to half the height of the molds; when firm to the touch, remove from the oven, and let them get thoroughly cold. With a tube measuring five-eighths of an inch in diameter, less than the bottom of the mold, remove the center of the forcemeat, and from this piece cut two slices three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness; put one of these slices into the empty space in the timbale, cover with a game chasseur salpicon (No. 745), and lay the other slice on top, as shown in the accompanying figure dip them in beaten eggs, and bread-crumbs, smooth the surfaces nicely, and mark the end with the tube that has been used to remove the center and fry a nice color, now lift off the marked slices or rounds, fill the inside with a Madeira sauce (No. 492), put the piece back again in place of a cover and serve.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already knows his numbered forcemeats and sauces, so this reads as an assembly note rather than a recipe. The work is in the sequence: poach, chill hard, core, fill, bread, fry.

The hinge: chill completelyThe forcemeat cylinders cannot be cored, layered or breaded while warm — they tear and the crumb coating slides off in the fat. Poach a day ahead if possible and refrigerate the unmolded timbales uncovered until cold and firm all the way through.
Slow oven, water bathThe molds sit in a bath with boiling water poured to half their height, which keeps the cream forcemeat below a hard simmer; if the water boils the mixture can curdle and weep butter. The book calls only for a "slow oven" and gives no temperature; something in the region of 300F answers to the term. "Firm to the touch" is the only doneness cue given.
Cream forcemeatNo. 75 is a game forcemeat made with cream: pounded game flesh, seasoned, let down with cream, of the type later called mousseline. The details belong to that entry rather than this one. A food processor does the pounding, but the cream must go in cold and gradually or the emulsion breaks.
Timbale moldsThe molds are the small straight-sided cups shown at No. 2, Fig. 137. The book gives no capacity, but the bottom must be a little wider than the five-eighths-inch coring tube, so they are small. Individual dariole molds or metal timbale cups work; buttered ramekins will do, though the straighter the sides the cleaner the coring.
The tubeFive-eighths of an inch is the size of a small plain pastry tube. It serves twice — first to remove the plug, then to score the top round so it can be lifted off as a lid after frying.
Salpicon chasseurA salpicon is a fine dice bound in sauce; chasseur denotes mushrooms and shallots in a white wine and tomato-tinged brown sauce, the game here coming from the game itself. Make it stiff and cold, or it will run when the brissotin is breaded.
FryingDeep fat at 350 to 360F, two to three minutes. The interior is already cooked; you are only setting the crumb. Hotter fat colors the crust before the center loses its chill.
Sauce at the last momentThe Madeira sauce goes in after frying, through the hole left by the lifted lid. Have it hot and reduced enough to hold, and serve immediately — these collapse into softness if held.
YieldThe original gives none. Count one brissotin per person as a hot side dish within a long menu, two if it is standing as a first course.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry is characteristic of the book's method: a numbered dish that exists mostly as cross-references to other numbered dishes, so that the kitchen could recombine a fixed set of forcemeats, salpicons and sauces into hundreds of named preparations. The name brissotin is obscure; by the late nineteenth century it had settled in French professional cookery as a small breaded and fried forcemeat case served as a hot side dish. Dishes like this belonged to the era of the long service menu, where a dish of a few mouthfuls, elaborately built and eaten in two bites, was worth an hour of a cook's labor because there were more courses behind it.