No. 887

Guinea Fowl or Pullet Croquettes in Surprise

Croquettes de Pintade ou Poularde en Surprise

Have one pound of the white meat from a roasted Guinea fowl; suppress all the fat and nerves, and cut it up into small three-sixteenth inch squares; add to these a quarter of a pound of truffles cut the same size, and put all into a pint and a half of a well buttered, cold supreme sauce (No. 547). Form the preparation into balls an inch and three-quarter in diameter, flatten them down to half an inch in thickness, and remove the center of each with a half inch tube; fill this empty space with a foies-gras ball, then dip them into beaten eggs and roll them in bread-crumbs, then fry them till a nice color. Serve on folded napkins, garnished with fried parsley.

← No. 886 Grouse Croquettes with Tomatoed Soubise Sauc Hot Side Dishes No. 888 Lamb Croquettes a la de Rivas →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold-bound croquette in the classical mould: the whole thing succeeds or fails on the sauce setting firm enough to cut, and on the croquettes going into the fat cold. Everything else is assembly.

The binding sauce is the hingeRanhofer's supreme (No. 547) is a velouté finished with cream and reduced hard, then buttered; at a pint and a half to a pound of meat it will look impossibly loose while warm. It must be spread on a tray, chilled several hours until it slices cleanly, and only then shaped. If it is still slack, the croquettes will burst in the fryer.
VolumesA pint and a half is 3 cups in US measure (the book is New York, 1894, so American pints). One pound of cooked white meat is more than one small guinea fowl will yield — reckon on the breasts of two birds, or the equivalent in large chicken breasts.
"Poularde"A poularde is a fattened young hen (historically, by some definitions, spayed). It is still sold in France, though rarely elsewhere; a good roasting chicken, or better a free-range bird with some fat on it, stands in. Guinea fowl is still widely available and is the drier, gamier of the two.
The diceThree-sixteenths of an inch is about 5 mm — small, even, and cut by hand. Shredded or food-processed meat gives a pâté texture and defeats the point, which is distinct flecks of white meat and black truffle suspended in the sauce.
TrufflesA quarter pound of truffle to a pound of meat is lavish by modern standards, though Ranhofer uses truffles freely elsewhere. Preserved black truffle, finely diced, at a fraction of that weight will read; truffle oil will not, and its aroma does not survive frying.
The surpriseThe half-inch tube punches out a plug from the flattened disc; a small ball of foie gras (the cavity holds barely a third of a teaspoon; roll it and chill it firm) goes in, and the sides are pinched over to seal it completely. Any exposed seam leaks fat into the frying oil. Chill the finished croquettes again before breading.
Breading and fryingEgg and crumb once, and for security egg and crumb a second time on the sealed side. Fry at 350–375°F for 2–3 minutes — long enough to colour and warm through, since every component is already cooked. Hotter and the crust darkens before the centre softens.
Fried parsleyDry curly parsley sprigs, dropped into the same fat for 10–15 seconds, until they stop hissing and turn a set, brilliant green. Wet parsley spits violently. Drain on paper immediately.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of that house's repertoire, cross-referenced by number so a cook could chase a sauce through several dishes — hence the pointer to No. 547. Croquettes occupy dozens of entries in the hot side-dish section, because a cold, sauce-bound farce could be prepared in the morning and fried to order at the moment of service, which is exactly what a restaurant of that size needed. En surprise is a nineteenth-century menu term for a hidden centre, and the surprise here is foie gras. Guinea fowl (pintade) appears in the book alongside chicken and the game birds.