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Galantine

A cold, stuffed poultry dish made with forcemeat, fowl, tongue, bacon, and broth, then chilled and served with aspic.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and nuts match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 425 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Galantine

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble

  1. Spread a ¾ inch layer of forcemeat evenly over the fowl.

  2. Layer slices of the bird, followed by tongue and bacon squares.

  3. Add another layer of the meat from the bird, then more tongue and bacon squares.

  4. Finish with a thick layer of forcemeat, dusting spiced salt between each layer.

  5. Fold the fowl over the layers and sew it securely with fine twine.

  6. Wrap in a clean cloth and tie with cross strings to maintain shape.

Poach

  1. Place in a deep stewpan and cover with giblet and bone broth mixed with Chablis.

  2. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer gently for 3-4 hours.

  3. Cool the galantine in the liquid for 1 hour, then drain and remove the cloth.

Press and finish

  1. Wrap in a fresh dry cloth and place a heavy weight on top until cold.

  2. Remove the galantine, melt off any fat, and wipe it carefully.

  3. Glaze to a pale brown color and refrigerate.

  4. Serve garnished with croquettes of aspic jelly and lettuce leaves.

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

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

  2. Truffle + livertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  3. Truffle + pistachiotop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together92 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Truffle + nutstop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Liver + pistachiotop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Forcemeat
Forms the binding layers that hold the sliced meats together as the galantine sets.
Cooked fowl
Provides the main bulk and meaty structure of the rolled galantine.
Tongue
Adds a firm, flavorful meat layer that holds its shape when sliced.
Bacon
Adds savory fat and flavor that renders into the surrounding meat.
Giblet and bone broth
Gently poaches the galantine and supplies moisture while it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after boiling. A rolling boil can break up the forcemeat and toughen the meat, so the liquid should be brought to a boil and then kept at a gentle simmer.

Swap the pistachio

The recipe marks pistachio as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spread, truffle, liver, nuts):

  1. Pistachiothe original
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Almondfits less well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against spread, truffle, liver, nuts. 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 →

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