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Quenelles of Fowl, a LA Maeciiale

Quenelles of fowl shaped and poached, coated in Allemande sauce, breaded, broiled, and served with a filling of truffles, mushrooms, fat livers, cocks' combs, or kernels.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and truffle are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,209 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Quenelles of Fowl, a LA Maeciiale

Ingredients

Directions

Shape and poach

  1. Shape the quenelles into cutlets, oval, oblong, circular, or heart shapes, no thicker than ¼ inch.

  2. Poach the quenelles.

  3. Trim the quenelles.

Coat and set

  1. Place the quenelles on a dish.

  2. Mask the quenelles with Allemande sauce.

  3. Let the quenelles set by cooling.

  4. Bread-crumb the quenelles with egg.

  5. Sprinkle clarified butter over the quenelles.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the quenelles on oiled paper until lightly colored on one side.

  2. Carefully turn the quenelles to cook the other side.

  3. Arrange the quenelles in a close circle on a serving plate.

  4. Fill the center with truffles, mushrooms, fat livers, cocks' combs, or kernels.

  5. Serve.

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. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + truffletop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,604 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sauce + truffletop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,490 recipes

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Fillets of 2 fowls
Forms the main body of the quenelles, giving them their substance and shape.
Allemande sauce
Coats the quenelles with a rich, creamy layer that adds moisture and flavor.
Egg
Binds the coating so the crumbs adhere and help the surface brown when broiled.
Clarified butter
Adds fat that promotes browning and a golden, crisp surface under the broiler.

The step that matters

Let the quenelles set by cooling. If the quenelles are coated or handled before they have firmed up, the mixture stays soft and can break apart or smear. Letting them cool and set first gives them the firmness needed to hold their shape through breading and broiling.

“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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