No. 984

Sartiges Timbales

Timbales a la Sartiges

Butter some timbale molds (No. 2, Fig. 137), decorate the center of the bottom with a rosette design made of truffles, and around the top and bottom of the sides of the mold, lay a detached row of round pieces of truffle, having those at the bottom somewhat smaller than those at the top. In the center on each side make a truffle cross-shaped like an X, one inch high, and in the middle of it, lay a small eighth of an inch round of tongue, and on each side rings of tongue, three-eighths of an inch in diameter. Fill the bottoms and sides with a grouse cream forcemeat (No. 75), and set in the center of this a salpicon composed of squares of truffle cut in three-sixteenths of an inch, and mingled with a well reduced half-glaze sauce (No. 413); fill up with more of the forcemeat, and finish the same as the timbales (No. 959). Serve separately an espagnole sauce (No. 414) with game essence (No. 389).

← No. 983 Rothschild Timeales Hot Side Dishes No. 985 Scotch Timbales →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is one of Ranhofer's cross-referenced constructions: the entry itself is really a decorating scheme, and the substance sits in the numbered recipes it points to. Read it as an assembly diagram and gather the components first.

What you actually have to makeThe recipe leans on four other entries: a grouse cream forcemeat (No. 75), a reduced half-glaze (No. 413, essentially demi-glace boiled down to a coating consistency), an espagnole (No. 414), and a game essence (No. 389). Without those in hand there is nothing to line the molds with. A well-made demi-glace and a strong game or dark poultry stock reduction will stand in for the last three.
Timbale moldsThe recipe points to Ranhofer's No. 2 mold (Fig. 137); the entry itself gives no dimensions, so treat any capacity as a guess. Small dariole molds, ramekins or metal timbale cups of a single-serving size behave the same way. Butter them and chill them hard before decorating, or the truffle slices slide.
Cooking method, which the recipe does not state"Finish the same as the timbales (No. 959)" hands the cooking off to that entry; timbales of this type are normally poached rather than baked dry. Set the filled molds in a pan of hot water reaching two-thirds up their sides, cover with buttered paper, and cook in a moderate oven -- no temperature is given here or in this entry. A cream forcemeat of game should be cooked through to an internal 160F. Water that boils will curdle the farce and blow the decoration off the walls.
Making the decoration stay putThe truffle rounds and tongue rings are fixed to cold buttered metal by their own moisture and then held by the forcemeat pressed against them. A common garde-manger trick is to dip each piece in a little melted aspic or plain gelatin and set it, chilling between steps. Line the mold with a thin, even coat of forcemeat using the back of a spoon before filling the center.
Grouse, and what to use insteadWild grouse is not a supermarket item and its flavour is assertive. Pheasant, wild duck breast or partridge behave similarly in a farce; boneless chicken thigh with a spoonful of reduced game stock and a little liver gets close in texture though not in character. Cream forcemeats of this kind are pounded lean flesh worked with cream (check No. 75 for Ranhofer's own proportions), so keep everything cold and pass it through a sieve or fine food-processor pass for the smooth body Ranhofer expects.
SalpiconA salpicon is simply small even dice bound in a thick sauce. Three-sixteenths of an inch is a scant 5 mm. It must be cold and stiff before it goes into the center, or it will bleed through the forcemeat lining during cooking.
TongueThe recipe does not specify, but decorative tongue in this kind of kitchen is cooked, pressed, cured (scarlet) beef or veal tongue, cut into thin rounds and rings. Deli-sliced cured tongue works for the decoration; the point of it here is colour contrast against the black truffle, so a firm slice of pink cured meat serves the same visual purpose.
Truffle quantityDecorating a set of molds in this pattern consumes a surprising amount of truffle. Preserved truffle peelings or a smaller, simpler pattern of rounds keeps the effect at a fraction of the cost.
Yield and serviceRanhofer gives no number. Figure one timbale per person as a hot side dish or first course, and unmold onto warmed plates after resting two or three minutes so the farce firms. The espagnole with game essence goes in a sauceboat, not over the top, so the decoration stays visible.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's account of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is organised like a professional reference rather than a home cookbook: numbered recipes that call on one another, and dishes named for the patrons, diplomats and public figures who ate them. "A la Sartiges" belongs to that habit of commemorative naming, and is generally taken to honour the Comte de Sartiges, French minister to the United States in the 1850s, though Ranhofer, as usual, offers no explanation. The dish itself shows what an elaborate hot side dish meant in that kitchen: a cream forcemeat of game, a bound dice of truffle hidden at the center, and a decoration of truffle and cured tongue laid out to measured fractions of an inch inside a mold the diner never sees intact. The pattern exists only to be revealed at the moment of unmolding, which tells you how much labour a nineteenth-century brigade could spend on a single course.