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Pears of Goose, with Peas
Divide the goose force in six even parts, roll on a lightly floured table and give them a nice smooth pear form; dip in beaten egg, gently roll in fresh bread crumbs, arrange in a frying basket, plunge in boiling fat and fry for ten minutes. Lift up, thoroughly drain, pour a gill hot demi-glace sauce on a hot dish and arrange the pears over; dress green peas around them, adjust a fancy frill on top of each pear and serve.
This is an assembly recipe: it assumes you already have goose forcemeat made up elsewhere in the book, and it turns that mixture into six breaded, pear-shaped croquettes. The forcemeat itself is the part that needs attention, since the page gives no quantities for it.
- "Goose force" means forcemeatA ground mixture of goose meat (often the leg meat and liver) bound with panada, egg and seasoning, worked smooth and firm enough to shape. Any well-chilled poultry forcemeat or a stiff goose croquette mixture will behave the same way. Figure roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb of mixture to get six pears of a serviceable size.
- Chill before shapingThis is the hinge. Warm or slack forcemeat will not hold a pear shape and will split in the fat, dumping the interior. Chill the mixture until firm, shape, then chill the shaped pears again before breading.
- Egg and crumb properlyA pass through flour before the beaten egg gives the coating something to grip; the recipe's lightly floured table does part of this already. Fresh crumbs, as specified, behave differently from dried commercial crumbs -- expect a softer, less even crust, and judge the colour by eye rather than the clock.
- Fat temperatureThe recipe gives no temperature; 'boiling fat' is usually read as somewhere in the 350-375F range. Ten minutes should suit a forcemeat pear of this size, but check the centre reaches 165F. Hotter fat browns the crumbs long before the middle is safe.
- A gill of demi-glaceHalf a cup (4 fl oz). Demi-glace is classically espagnole sauce combined with brown stock and reduced down; a good reduced veal or goose stock, lightly thickened, stands in acceptably. It goes under the pears, as the recipe directs, so the crust stays crisp.
- The fancy frillA paper cutlet frill or, more in keeping with the conceit, a short length of blanched leek green or a clove pushed into the narrow end to read as a stalk. Purely decorative and easily omitted.
- YieldSix pears, one per person as an entree course, or two per person as a main dish with the peas.
Shaping forcemeat into miniature versions of other foods was a familiar device in the professional kitchens that produced books like this one: cutlets, pears, chops and corks made from the same croquette mixture, distinguished only by their outline and a paper frill. One might suppose the trick let a kitchen use up the dark meat and trimmings of a bird whose breast had gone to a grander dish, while still sending something ornamental to the table, though that is inference rather than documented practice. Goose was a common enough autumn and winter roast in both Europe and America, and its legs are tough and sinewy compared with the breast, which makes them natural forcemeat material.