No. 859

Cannelons with Puree of Chicken or Game

Cannelons a la Puree de Volaille ou de Gibier

Butter the outsides of some tin cornets, two and a half inches by one and a half inches, roll around them a thinly rolled out half inch band made of puff paste trimmings, overlapping half of the paste at each round, lay them on a slightly dampened baking sheet, egg over twice, and cook them lying flat in a hot oven, when done, pull out the tin cornets, and set the cannelons upright, the wide opening at the top, and the point pared in such a manner that they are all of an exact height, keep them in this position by placing them in a paupiette mold; and fill the insides of the cannelons either with a game puree (No. 716), or a chicken puree (No. 713). Cover the wide opening with game or chicken forcemeat (No. 89) according to its contents, and set them in a slow oven for ten minutes, then serve on folded napkins.

← No. 858 Cannelons Oe Beef Palate or Lambs' Sweetbrea Hot Side Dishes No. 860 Cassolettes Lusigny →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's cannelons are puff-paste horns baked on tin cones, then stood upright and filled with a bound puree. Nothing here is difficult, but the recipe assumes a professional pastry bench and three cross-references the reader has to supply.

The hinge: bake them lying flatThe bands of paste are wound around greased cones and baked on their sides so the spiral does not unwind or slump. Only after the tin is pulled out are the horns set point-down and upright for filling.
Tin cornetsThese are cream-horn or lady-lock molds, still sold in sets. Two and a half by one and a half inches is a small horn, roughly a two-bite side dish. Butter the outside of the mold, not the inside.
"A thinly rolled out half inch band"The half inch is the width of the strip, not its thickness; roll the paste about an eighth of an inch thick and cut ribbons half an inch wide. Overlapping each turn by half its width gives a double thickness all the way up, which is what keeps the horn rigid.
Puff paste trimmingsRanhofer means the offcuts from other pastry work, re-rolled rather than re-folded; re-rolled scrap tends to rise less evenly, which for a wound horn is no disadvantage. All-butter frozen puff pastry, rolled thin, behaves much the same; avoid stretching it, or the spiral shrinks off the mold.
Oven temperatures"Hot oven" for the horns corresponds to roughly 425-450F; bake until dry and well colored throughout, or they collapse when filled. "Slow oven" for the ten-minute finish is somewhere around 275-300F, only to heat through and set the forcemeat cap.
Egg over twiceTwo thin coats of beaten egg, the second after the first has dried, give the gloss the period expected. Keep the wash off the baking sheet, where it glues the pastry down.
Paupiette moldsSmall straight-sided metal cylinders used to hold the horns steady while they are filled and reheated. A mini-muffin tin, or a shallow pan filled with rice or coarse salt, holds them upright just as well.
The fillings, in plain termsNos. 713 and 716 are Ranhofer's chicken and game purees: pounded cooked meat let down with a thick sauce and sieved smooth, seasoned and stiff enough to hold a shape. No. 89 is one of his forcemeats, used here raw as a piped cap that cooks in the final ten minutes. Fill the horns while the puree is warm, and pipe from the bottom so no air pocket is left at the point.
Yield and serviceThe recipe gives no yield; work from the paste you have, since each horn takes only a short ribbon. The folded napkin steadies them on the dish; serve immediately, as puff paste softens quickly once filled.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, where Charles Ranhofer cooked for some thirty years, and the hot side dishes section runs to dozens of small, showy, labor-intensive items. Cannelon comes from the French for a little tube or pipe, the same root as cannelle and cannelloni, and the technique of winding paste around a greased cone is the savory twin of the sweet cream horn. The recipe's real logic is economy: puff-paste trimmings and cooked chicken or game, pounded and sieved into a puree, are turned into something that reads on a menu as a made dish.