No. 920

Palmettes

Palmettes are molded in bottomless molds, made of tin bands three-eights of an inch in height, and heart-shape, from three to three and a half inches on the longest side by two and a half on its widest, and being three inches long in the center of the heart. These molds are to be buttered and laid on sheets of very strong paper, cut three inches by four, and buttered and laid on sheets of very strong paper, cut three inches by four, and buttered on one side; place the molds on this buttered side and fill them with a mousseline force-meat (No. 86), made either of fish, chicken or game, to which has been added various salpicons. Instead of the mousseline forcemeat, a quenelle forcemeat (No. 89) and a cream forcemeat (No. 74) (an equal quantity of each), may be substituted. The palmettes should only be slightly poached, having them of a sufficient consistency to allow them to be bread-crumbed without breaking; they must first be dipped in eggs and then in bread-crumb, and fried in white and very hot fat; when a fine color they are to be dressed crown-shaped, and garnished with small frill favors (No. 10). The pointed ends of these trimmed handles are inserted into the point ends of the palmettes. Serve at the same time as the palmettes, but separately, a light sauce.

← No. 919 Mousseline of Young Rabbit Hot Side Dishes No. 921 Junot Palmettes →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a Delmonico's construction rather than a dish with a fixed flavor: a mousseline forcemeat set in heart-shaped rings, poached just firm, then breaded and fried. Nearly everything hinges on how lightly the poaching is done.

The hinge: poach only to settingThe forcemeat must be firm enough to bread and handle, but no more; a fully cooked mousseline dries out and then dries again in the fryer. Set the papers in a shallow pan of water held at 170-180F, or steam them, until the surface is just resilient, then chill thoroughly before crumbing.
The moldsBottomless tin bands 3/8 inch high are simply rings with no base, so the forcemeat sits directly on buttered paper. Plain metal ring molds, or strips of doubled foil bent to shape and stapled, do the same job. The heart outline is decorative only.
"Strong paper"Buttered parchment is a workable modern substitute for the "very strong paper" the book calls for. The line about cutting sheets three by four inches appears twice in this text, which looks like a duplication in transmission rather than a second step.
The forcemeatsNo. 86 mousseline is raw fish, chicken or game flesh pounded fine with egg white, sieved, then beaten over ice with heavy cream. Nos. 89 and 74 are the firmer quenelle forcemeat and a softer cream forcemeat, used half and half as a substitute. A food processor and a drum sieve replace the mortar.
SalpiconA salpicon here is a fine, even dice of cooked garnish folded into the forcemeat: truffle, mushroom, tongue, lobster, ham. Keep the dice small and the quantity modest or the mousseline will not hold together when breaded.
"White and very hot fat"Probably clean frying fat that has not colored from earlier use; in modern terms roughly 365-375F answers "very hot." Older or darkened fat will brown the crumbs before the interior is hot.
Frill favorsNo. 10 refers to paper frills on small skewers, pushed into the point of each heart as a handle. Purely ornamental, and safely omitted.
Yield and serviceService -- The recipe gives no yield or portion count. The "light sauce" served separately would be something on the order of a suprême, a fish velouté or a shellfish sauce, matched to whatever meat went into the forcemeat.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book reads as a working reference for a large professional brigade rather than a household manual, which is why so many entries are little more than a shape plus two cross-references to a forcemeat. A palmette in the decorative arts is the stylized palm-leaf ornament of classical architecture, and the culinary use of the name is often taken to derive from that fanned, heart-like outline. The dish belongs to the era of service à la russe, when plates came to the table in sequence and a kitchen was expected to supply small hot side dishes that looked identical to one another and could be dressed crown-shaped. The technique behind it, a mousseline of pounded flesh lightened with cream and set by gentle poaching, was formalized in the nineteenth-century French kitchen and is still the basis of quenelles and seafood terrines today.