This section is from the book "The Epicurean", by Charles Ranhofer. Also available from Amazon: The Epicurean, a Complete Treatise of Analytical and Practical Studies on the Culinary Art.
Fasten on to the center of an entree dish a wooden bottom an inch and a half in thickness; cover it with a thin flat of noodle paste (No. 142 ); in the middle of this fasten a small round support cut sloping, and on top set a small basket, all of these being covered with noodle paste; the inside must also be covered, and the outside with ornamental leaves cut from the same paste. Egg over this paste and dry it for a few hours. Prepare a forcemeat with ten ounces of salmon, eight ounces of panada (No. 121), eight ounces of lobster butter (No. 580) and four egg-yolks; rub it through a sieve and when very smooth try a small piece to rectify if necessary; let this harden on the ice for twenty minutes, stirring it frequently. Make a fine truffled montglas with mushrooms and truffles thickened with a good veloute sauce (No. 415), reduced and finished with a few tablespoon-fuls of fish glaze (No. 399); let this preparation get cold and divide into small parts and roll into long-shaped olives. Have the forcemeat very smooth and form it into quenelles with a spoon No. 15.')), and stuffing each one with a little montglas poach them in salted water, drain on a cloth and decorate the smoothest side with a truffle lozenge, fastening it on with a little of the uncooked forcemeat.
Dress these quenelles in a circle around the base on the dish, inclining them somewhat; till the basket with small truffles, cover the quenelles lightly with a little good lean veloute sauce (No. 416) reduced with fish court-bouillon (No. 38) and mushroom broth, having a separate sauce-boat of the same sauce. The truffles in the basket may be replaced by mushrooms or a small pyramid of crawfish tails or shrimps dressed around a bed of fresh parsley.

Fig. 433.

Fig. 4.14.
 
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