Classic Culinary Arts:

Chartreuse Of Chicken Recipe

Make the forcemeat as for quenelles of chicken. Simmer two large chickens in white stock for half an hour. Take up, and let cool. Have a pickled tongue boiled tender. Cut thin slices from the breast of the chickens, and cut these in squares. Cut the tongue in slices, and these in turn in squares the same size as the chicken. Butter a four-quart mould, and arrange the chicken and tongue handsomely on the bottom and sides, being careful to have the pieces fit closely together. Have note paper cut to fit the bottom and sides. Butter it well, and cover about an inch deep with the forcemeat. Take up the bottom piece by the four corners and fit it into the mould, the meat side down. Pour a little hot water into any kind of a flat-bottomed tin basin, and put this in the mould and move it over the papers, to melt the butter; then lift out the paper. Place the papers on the side in the same way as on the bottom and melt the butter by rolling a bottle of hot water over them. Remove these papers, and set the mould in a cold place until the filling is ready. Cut from the tenderest part of the chicken enough meat to make two quarts. Cut four large, or six small, mushrooms and four truffles in strips. Put half a cupful of butter, half a large onion, four cloves, a blade of mace, a slice of carrot, one of turnip and a stalk of celery in a sauce-pan, and cook five minutes, stirring all the while; then add five table-spoonfuls of flour. Stir until it begins to brown, when add one quart of the stock in which the chickens were cooked, a bouquet of sweet herbs, and salt and pepper. Simmer twenty minutes; strain, and add to the chicken. Return to the fire, and simmer twenty minutes longer, and set away to cool. When cold, put a layer of the chicken in the mould, and a light layer of the truffles and mushrooms. Continue this until the form is nearly full, and then cover with the remainder of the forcemeat. Spread buttered paper upon it, and put in a cool place until cooking time, when steam two hours. Turn carefully upon the dish. Brush over with three table-spoonfuls of melted glaze. Pour one pint of supreme sauce around it, and serve.

The forcemeat must be spread evenly on the paper and smoothed with a knife that has been dipped in hot water. All kinds of meat chartreuses can be made in this manner.