No. 911

Ham Mousseline or Mousse a la Belmont, Costa, Virginienne

Mousseline ou Mousse de Jambon a la Belmont, a la Costa et a la Virginienne

A la Belmont.—Chop very fine a pound of cooked ham, and a quarter of a pound of breast of chicken freed from nerves and fat. Add two dessertspoonfuls of cold bechamel sauce (No. 409), thickened with cream and eight egg-yolks, and pour in slowly three spoonfuls of good cream and one of Madeira. Add the same volume of well drained whipped cream as there is forcemeat, and finish the same as mousseline a la Costa. Serve separately a chicken essence (No. 387), thickened with rice flour, to which a little tomato puree (No. 730) is added, and some lean ham cut in very small dice.

A la Costa.—Take one pound of raw, lean ham previously cut in small dice soaked in cold water for three hours, drain and pound with one-quarter of a pound of chicken breasts previously run through the machine (Fig. 147), then press the meat through a fine sieve and put this in a metal pan on the ice, work and add gradually the volume of one pint of well drained not sweetened whipped cream and a teaspoonful of fecula. Butter some mousseline molds (No. 2, Fig. 138), dredge over some finely chopped, cooked, lean ham, fill the molds with preparation and poached as explained (No. 152), dress on a dish having a little consommé in it. Serve separately a West-phalian sauce (No. 561).

A la Virginienne.—Chop finely a quarter of a pound of raw or cooked, lean Virginia ham, also a quarter of a pound of chicken breasts, mix the two together and pound, add bechamel sauce (No. 409), pass through a fine sieve, adding two soupspoonfuls of tomato puree (No.730), and one teaspoonful of fecula; mix with this the same volume of chicken cream forcemeat (No. 75), put in a thin basin on ice and add to it the volume of one pint of well drained unsweetened whipped cream, finish the same as a la Costa. Serve separately a champagne sauce (No. 445).

← No. 910 Cardinal Mousseline Hot Side Dishes No. 912 Isabella Mousseline →

For the Modern Kitchen

Three variations on the same hot ham mousseline: a pounded, sieved ham-and-chicken forcemeat lightened with whipped cream and poached in small molds. The whole thing hinges on keeping the mixture cold while the cream goes in and poaching it gently, so read the temperature notes before you start.

The hinge: cold bowl, gentle poachThe forcemeat must stay cold while the whipped cream is folded in, hence Ranhofer's "metal pan on the ice" and "thin basin on ice." Ranhofer sends you to his general poaching instruction (No. 152) rather than giving a temperature; poach the filled molds in a water bath kept well below the boil, until the centers are set and reach a safe 160F. Boiling water will curdle the mixture and push the mousseline out of the mold.
Spoon measuresA dessertspoonful is about 2 teaspoons. "Soupspoonful" means a tablespoon; Ranhofer's unqualified "spoonful" is usually read the same way, though he does not define it. On that reading "three spoonfuls of good cream" is about 3 tablespoons, not a large addition.
FeculaFecula is potato starch. Cornstarch is the nearest substitute; use the same teaspoonful. It is there to bind the mousse, not to thicken it visibly.
"The machine" and the sieveThe machine at Fig. 147 is, from the context of running meat through it, a meat grinder; a food processor does the grinding and much of the pounding. The pressing through a fine sieve is not optional in the original: work the puree through a drum sieve or fine-mesh strainer with a stiff plastic scraper to catch connective tissue.
Raw ham and the soakingThe "raw, lean ham" of the Costa version is dry-cured ham, not fresh pork, and the three-hour soak in cold water is to draw out salt. Modern supermarket ham is wet-cured and far milder; if you use it, skip or shorten the soak or the mousse will be bland and waterlogged. Country ham or prosciutto behaves as the original intends.
Virginia hamIn 1894 this meant a dry-salt-cured, hickory-smoked, often aged ham of the Smithfield type, markedly saltier and more pungent than anything sold as "Virginia ham" today. Country ham from a Southern producer is the closest match.
Eight yolks in the BelmontRead the text carefully: the eight yolks and the cream belong to the bechamel (No. 409), and only two dessertspoonfuls of that bechamel go into the forcemeat. The Belmont is the richest of the three, but the yolks reach the mousse only in that small quantity. Fold the whipped cream in at the last moment.
Volume, not weight, for the cream"The same volume of well drained whipped cream as there is forcemeat" means measure the sieved forcemeat in a measuring cup and match it with whipped cream, drained of any weeping liquid. Whip to soft peaks; stiff cream breaks when folded into a dense puree.
Yield and serviceRanhofer gives no yield; on the quantities stated each version will fill several individual molds. The mousselines are turned out onto a warm dish with a little consomme under them, and the recipe directs that the sauce be served separately.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York. August Belmont, the banker and Delmonico regular, is the likely namesake of the first version, though Ranhofer, as usual, does not say; "a la Virginienne" points to the Virginia country hams that Northern hotels bought as a luxury item, the same cured hams that made Smithfield a national name. The mousseline itself belongs to the high period of French forcemeat cookery, when a kitchen with enough labor could pound a pound of ham to paste in a mortar, force it through a fine sieve, and lighten it with an equal volume of whipped cream to produce something that ate like air but tasted of salt pork. Dishes like this one filled the "hot side dishes" slot in a long menu, served between the heavier courses in small molds, and they largely disappeared from restaurant cooking when the brigade shrank and the mortar went with it.