FoodNet

The "Queen" cookery books: Entrees

1901

Page 34

Presented as published in 1901. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Border moulds, when well buttered, are filled with a cream or a quenelle mixture, then steamed, precisely like a mousse or souffle ; panade is usually preferred to sauce for these, as it makes them more substantial, but care should be taken not to overdo this or they will inevitably be stodgy, a fault only too common with quenelles as made by British cooks. For the panade put |oz. of butter into a pan with a gill of milk, stock, or water, as you please, and bring it to the boil ; now sift into it 2oz. of fine flour, and stir this altogether over the fire till it becomes thick enough to ball, when you draw the pan a little to the side of the stove (keeping it, however, on a hot part), and let it cook a few minutes longer (stirring it at intervals to prevent its catching), till the flour is thoroughly cooked. (It is, by the way, to neglect of this precaution that the unpleasant raw and pasty taste of so much melted butter is due.) Quenelles and creams are frequently nowadays enriched with a delicate ragout of any kind, added thus : About half fill the well- buttered mould with the quenelle mixture, then with a hot wet spoon, or your thumb dipped into hot water, hollow out a 70 ENTRIES. cavity in the centre and fill this up with any ragout to taste, finally covering it with more farce, smoothed into a dome shape with a hot wet knife. For in- stance, a cube of pfite de foie gras truffe, or a mix- ture of minced cooked sweetbread, cooked meat, poultry or game, button mushrooms, truffles, ham or tongue, See., may be stirred into a little rich veloute or bechamel, seasoned with salt and pepper, and placed in a quenelle of chicken farce, and the whole poached as advised above ; or any nice ragout on these lines, or a little rather thick oyster or shrimp sauce, may be used for brown meat as you please. Sometimes, instead of putting the farce thus filled into a tinned mould, it is tied into shape in a piece of muslin, and simply poached, being when •cooked turned out on to a hot dish with any rich sauce to taste poui’ed over and round it, and a garnish of some kind served with it. Prepared thus it is frequently known as a bondin, while if small rolls of stuffed farce are dished thus, these are often termed boudinettes. Lastly, there is the pain, or cake, which is usually a combination of fillets of any kind of meat, and a rich quenelle or cream mixture. For instance, pain de volatile au foie gras may be prepared thus : Well butter a round charlotte mould, and arrange round the sides neat fillets of chicken, previously three parts cooked as for filets de volatile d la supreme, pressing these well against the buttered sides ; now line the mould pretty thickly with creme de volatile flavoured with pate de foie gras, as described above, leaving a small hollow in the centre which you fill up with a ragout of cooked sweet- SOUFFLES, MOUSSES, &c. 71