Skip to main content
Main

Galantines

A cold meat terrine made by stuffing a boned piece of meat with forcemeat and other ingredients, braised and set in consommé.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and pistachio match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Galantines

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Carefully bone the piece of meat and season the inside.

Fill and tie

  1. Fill it with layers of forcemeat, tongue, sausage, bacon fat, truffles, and other ingredients.

  2. Sew it up, ensuring it retains its original shape, and secure it in a cloth.

Cook and set

  1. Cook it in rich consommé for several hours.

  2. Let it cool in the cooking liquid, which should then be reduced and clarified.

  3. Use the clarified liquid as jelly for decoration when serving.

Serve

  1. Serve the galantine cold on a white napkin.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Chestnut + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Almond + chestnuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together130 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pistachio + nutstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Almond + nutstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Forcemeat
Forms the layered stuffing that gives the sliced galantine its body and mouthfeel.
Bacon fat
Adds fat and moisture to the filling, keeping the lean meat juicy as it cooks.
Rich consommé
Cooks the galantine gently in a flavorful liquid that later sets into a clear jelly.
Foie gras
Contributes richness and a soft, buttery texture to the filling.
Truffles
Provide a strong, earthy aroma that perfumes the filling.
Veal fat
Adds moisture and richness, helping the filling stay tender and succulent.

The step that matters

Cooking in consommé and cooling in the liquid. Gentle, prolonged simmering keeps the rolled meat tender without boiling it apart. Cooling it in its own liquid keeps it moist and lets the reduced stock set into a clear, firm jelly.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, truffle, egg, oyster, almond, chestnut, pistachio):

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Cashew nutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, truffle, egg, oyster, almond, chestnut, pistachio. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More galantine recipes

Veal 27Turkey 19Beef 17Chicken 15Fowl 10of Fowl 5 See all 12 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesAlmond SoupAlmond Soup60 recipes