No. 891

Pheasant Croquettes

Croquettes de Faisans

Cut in three-sixteenth of an inch dice the cooked and cold breast meats taken from pheasants; put these into a small bowl with half their quantity of cooked truffles and mushrooms, a few spoonfuls of red beef tongue also cut up. Set a little bechamel (No. 409) on the fire to reduce, and incorporate into it a few spoonfuls of pheasant fumet prepared with the game bones and parings, also the same quantity of mushroom essence (No. 392). After the sauce is thickened, add to it the salpicon, and season the whole to taste; when cold divide it into small parts and with them make pear or cork-shaped croquettes, fry them when needed and dress, garnishing with fried parsley. These croquettes can also be made with partridge or quail.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already knows the croquette method, so the two steps that decide success are unstated: the sauce must be reduced far past pouring consistency, and the shaped croquettes must be breaded before they meet the fat.

Reduce the béchamel much further than you thinkThe binder has to be stiff enough to slice when cold — closer to a thick pastry cream than a sauce. If it slumps on the spoon while hot, the croquettes will burst in the fryer. Chill the finished mixture spread on a tray at least 3 hours, or overnight.
Breading is assumed, not writtenRanhofer's croquette recipes elsewhere in the book are dipped in beaten egg and rolled in fine breadcrumbs before frying; this one leaves the step unstated. Skip it and the salpicon leaks. A second egg-and-crumb coat on the shaped pieces is cheap insurance.
SalpiconSimply the diced mixture itself — meat, truffle, mushroom and tongue cut to uniform small dice. Three-sixteenths of an inch is about 5 mm; keeping it even matters more than keeping it exact, since ragged pieces tear the coating.
Fumet and mushroom essenceThe pheasant fumet is a strong reduction made from the game bones and trimmings; a cup of good game or brown chicken stock reduced to a few tablespoons does the same work. Mushroom essence (No. 392) is the strained, reduced liquor from cooking mushrooms — dried mushrooms soaked and their soaking liquid reduced is a fair stand-in.
Red beef tongueCooked, cured tongue, valued here for colour as much as flavour. Sold ready-cooked at good delis; a little lean cooked ham makes a reasonable substitute, though it is saltier.
FryingDeep fat at 350–375°F, in small batches, 2–3 minutes to a deep gold. Everything inside is already cooked, so you are only heating through and setting the crust; longer frying only pushes the filling out.
The birdFarmed pheasant breast is lean and dries out roasted. Use the leg meat for the fumet, or poach it and add it to the dice; the recipe itself calls only for cooked, cold breast.
YieldThe breasts of two pheasants with their truffle, mushroom and tongue give roughly 2 cups of salpicon, or about 12 cork-shaped croquettes — six servings as a hot side dish, four as a course.
Fried parsleyDry the sprigs thoroughly before they go into the fat. Wet parsley spits violently; fried properly it takes only seconds and should stay bright green.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this recipe shows the logic of that kitchen: nothing from a game bird was wasted, and the parts that roasted badly were rebuilt into something else. Croquettes were a standard resting place for cooked meat in a professional larder — bound with a stiff sauce, shaped, crumbed and held until an order came in, which is what "fry them when needed" points to. Ranhofer specifies pear or cork shapes here, and gives different croquettes different shapes elsewhere in the book. Pheasant, partridge and quail are offered interchangeably, and American restaurant menus of the 1880s and 1890s leaned heavily on wild birds in a way that later game laws restricted. The truffle-and-tongue combination is Franco-American luxury of the period: two garnishes that read as black and red flecks in a pale cut surface.