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Galantine of Fowl

A wrapped fowl stuffed with sausage, ham, and egg, simmered in stock and glazed with a reduced Bovril and gelatin mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Galantine of Fowl

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fowl

  1. Bone the fowl and place it skin-side down on a board.

  2. Spread half the sausage meat over the fowl.

  3. Layer half the ham and egg on top.

  4. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  5. Cover with the remaining sausage meat.

  6. Add the rest of the ham, salt, pepper, and nutmeg on top.

  7. Roll the fowl tightly and wrap it securely in a cloth, tying both ends with string.

Cook and press

  1. Simmer the wrapped fowl in the stock-pot for 1 to 1.5 hours.

  2. Remove the wrapped fowl from the pot.

  3. Tighten the cloth.

  4. Place the wrapped fowl between two tins with a heavy weight on top until cold.

Glaze and garnish

  1. Boil the stock, Bovril, and gelatin in a saucepan.

  2. Reduce the mixture until it is 1 tablespoon, skimming off any scum.

  3. Remove the cloth from the galantine and quickly paint it with the glaze.

  4. Garnish with chopped aspic jelly and parsley.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Nutmeg + meattop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,656 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Forms the main body of the galantine, holding the filling together as it is rolled and cooked.
Sausage meat
Provides fat and moisture that keep the filling tender and juicy after simmering.
Gelatine
Sets the stock into a firm glaze that gives the cold galantine a glossy, sliceable finish.
Ham or lean bacon
Adds savoury flavour and salty depth to the filling.
Hard-boiled egg
Adds a firm, pale contrast in the filling when the galantine is sliced.

The step that matters

Reducing the glaze to 1 tablespoon. Reducing concentrates the gelatine and flavour so the glaze sets firmly and tastes rich. Skimming removes scum that would cloud the glaze. Too little reduction leaves it weak and runny.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, meat, pepper, ham):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, meat, pepper, ham. 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.

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