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Galantine of Fowl

A stuffed and wrapped fowl filled with sausage, ham, and egg, simmered and glazed.

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 of the sausage meat over the fowl.

  3. Layer half of the diced ham and sliced egg on top, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Cover with the remaining sausage meat and add the rest of the ham, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

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

Cook and set

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

  2. Remove from the pot and, when slightly cooled, tighten the cloth and place between two tins with a heavy weight on top until completely cold.

Glaze and finish

  1. For the glaze, boil the stock, meat extract, and gelatine in a saucepan until reduced to 1 tablespoon, skimming off any scum.

  2. Quickly paint the galantine with the glaze and 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

Whole fowl
Forms the main body and meat that the rolled galantine is built around.
Sausage meat
Adds richness and moisture, binding the layers together as the galantine cooks.
Gelatine
Sets the stock into a firm glaze that gives the cold galantine a glossy coating.
Ham or lean bacon
Adds savoury, salty flavour and contrast in texture through the rolled filling.
Hard-boiled egg
Adds a firm, pale contrast in the filling when the roll is sliced.

The step that matters

Rolling and tightening the cloth. A tight roll with even layers keeps the filling compact so slices hold their shape. Pressing it while slightly cooled and weighting it until fully cold lets the gelatine in the meat set firmly, preventing loose or crumbly slices.

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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