Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2
Page 35
Other suggestions
You can make delicious fresh sausages out of the all-purpose pork and veal pâté mixture in Volume I on page 565, plus, if you wish, diced ham, diced marinated bits of veal or game, or diced and briefly sautéed liver, as suggested in the pâté mixtures following it. You may also adapt any of the pâté mixtures in the next section of this chapter. Form and cook the sausages as described in the preceding recipe; this type of sausage, and the chicken-liver sausage in the next recipe, are particularly good when baked in brioche or pastry dough.
SAUCISSON TRUFFÉ AU FOIE GRAS OU AUX FOIES DE VOLAILLE
[Pork and Veal Sausages with Truffles and Foie Gras or with Chicken Livers—Especially for Baking in Brioche or Pastry Dough, or as a Stuffing for Pâtés, Poultry, Chaussons]
For about 4½ cups, making two 12 by 1½-inch sausages
2 Tb pork fat, chicken fat, or butter
¼ cup minced shallots or scallions
Either ¾ lb. (1½ cups) chicken livers;
Or a mixture of chicken livers and block canned foie gras, half-and-half if you wish to pay the price (foie gras is used in next step)
Heat the fat or butter in an 8-inch frying pan, add the shallots or scallions and the chicken livers (not the foie gras); toss over moderately high heat for several minutes until liver has just stiffened to the touch; it should feel springy, but remain rosy inside. If you are using chicken liver only, cut half into ¼-inch dice and place in a bowl.
The diced liver or the foie gras
2 Tb Cognac
Pinch épices fines, or allspice
Salt and pepper
If you are using foie gras, cut into ¼-inch dice and place in a bowl. Fold foie gras or liver gently with the Cognac and flavorings and let marinate until needed.
¼ cup (¾ ounce pressed down) stale white crumbs from unsweetened homemade-type bread
½ cup milk
Simmer bread crumbs in milk, stirring constantly, for several minutes until thick enough to mass on a spoon. Scrape into large bowl of mixer, or a large mixing bowl. (This is a panade.)
½ lb. (1 cup) lean veal
Either 1 lb. (2 cups) chair à saucisses;
Or ½ lb. lean pork loin, shoulder, or fresh ham and ½ lb. fresh pork fatback or outside loin fat
The sautéed undiced chicken livers
Put meats, fat, and chicken livers through finest blade of meat grinder and add to mixing bowl.
The marinade from the diced foie gras or chicken livers
2 tsp salt
Either ¾ tsp épices fines and ¼ tsp white pepper;
Or ½ tsp white pepper and big pinches each allspice and nutmeg
¼ tsp thyme
Either ¼ cup peeled pistachio nuts, quartered lengthwise;
Or 1 or 2 diced truffles and their canned juices
1 egg
¼ cup dry port wine or Sercial Madeira
The marinated foie gras or diced chicken livers
Beat in the marinade, salt, flavorings, pistachios or truffles and juice, and egg. When well blended, gradually beat in the wine. Finally, fold in the diced foie gras or chicken livers, being careful not to break the diced shapes. Mixture will be fairly soft. Sauté a spoonful and taste; correct seasoning as necessary. Form into sausages using either casings or cheesecloth. (If you are using the mixture for a filling or stuffing that is to be baked later, pack into a covered bowl.) Flavor will improve when refrigerated a day or two before cooking.
Cook and serve sausages as suggested in preceding Master Recipe, or bake in brioche dough as in the following recipe.
(*) STORAGE NOTE: Sausages may be frozen for a month or so.
SAUCISSON DE FOIES DE VOLAILLE—PTÉ DE FOIES DE VOLAILLE—FARCE À GRATIN
[Chicken-liver Sausage for Baking in Brioche Dough—Chicken-liver Pâté—Chicken-liver Spread or Filling]
This all-purpose liver mixture is so versatile it can serve as a sausage, a pâté, a spread for sandwiches and hors d’oeuvre, a filling for poultry or meat, and can generally be used anywhere you need the depth and strength of a liver accent. Liver alone is such a concentrated flavor that you must have something else with it to temper the taste: the sausage uses cream cheese and bread crumbs, while the pâté includes cheese and butter, and the filling, farce à gratin, calls for the traditional pork fat. Two other liver pâtés or spreads are the pork-liver pâté and the mousse of chicken livers in Volume I, page 559.
For about 2 cups
The basic chicken-liver mixture
⅓ cup very finely minced onions
3 Tb chicken fat or butter
¾ lb. (1½ cups) chicken livers
Either ¼ tsp épices fines;
Or a big pinch each of allspice, mace, and white pepper
A big pinch thyme
¼ tsp salt
⅓ cup Cognac
Optional: ½ cup diced fresh mushrooms, squeezed dry and sautéed in 1 Tb butter
Cook the onions slowly in the fat or butter for 12 to 15 minutes, until very tender but not brown. Add livers and seasonings, and toss over moderately high heat just until stiffened slightly, 2 to 3 minutes; livers should remain rosy inside. Pour in the Cognac, heat to bubbling, and flame with a lighted match; in 1 minute, extinguish flames with a cover and remove pan from heat. Stir in optional mushrooms. The liver mixture is now ready to be used either in brioche dough or in another form as follows.
For sausage in brioche
½ cup (1 ounce pressed down) dry white crumbs from unsweetened homemade-type bread
4 ounces (½ cup) cream cheese
The basic chicken-liver mixture
Stir the bread crumbs and cheese into the liver mixture, and purée through a food mill, meat grinder, or blender. Correct seasoning. Roll into a cylindrical shape in aluminum foil and chill until firm; however, bring to room temperature before encasing it in the dough so that dough will rise easily.
For liver spread or pâté
The basic chicken-liver mixture
4 ounces (½ cup) softened butter
4 ounces (½ cup) cream cheese
Purée liver mixture through a food mill, meat grinder, or blender, then beat in softened butter and cream cheese. Correct seasoning. If you plan to use this as a pâté, pack into a covered jar or mold, and chill.
For farce à gratin—to use as a spread, filling, or pâté
The basic chicken-liver mixture but substitute: 6 ounces (¾ cup) fresh pork fatback or outside loin fat for the butter
Rather than using butter for cooking the onions and chicken livers, use the ¾ cup pork fat as follows: grind or mince it, and cook slowly for 8 to 10 minutes in the sauté pan until pieces of fat are translucent but not browned, and ⅓ cup or so of fat has rendered. Then proceed with the recipe. Purée in a blender, food mill, or meat grinder, pack into a jar or decorative bowl, and chill.
(*) STORAGE NOTE: Any of these will keep for 4 to 5 days in the refrigerator, and they freeze successfully for several months.
SAUSAGES AND OTHER MEAT MIXTURES BAKED IN BRIOCHE DOUGH
Saucissons et Pâtés en Brioche
When you want to be dramatic and dressy with sausage, bake it in a brioche case. For cocktails, slice it warm and thin and serve on little plates. When it is a hot first course or the mainstay for luncheon or supper, include a succulent brown sauce to pour over each serving. Although reminiscent of pâté en croûte, sausage in brioche is usually served warm, and is lighter in general impression. Unlike the real pâté, which goes raw into its covering of dough for baking, the sausage or meat mixture that is enclosed in brioche dough has already been cooked, and remains in the oven only long enough to heat through as the brioche bakes.
FORMING NOTE
The rectangular loaf shape that encloses a large cylindrical sausage is the most typical form, and the one we shall illustrate. With your own sausage or cooked meat mixture, however, you may make it round, square, heart-shaped, or whatever you wish.
CLOSING THE GAP
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p; Because you are working with live dough, that is, yeast dough, you may run into one problem that does not occur with pastry dough: this is a sometimes ugly space between the meat and the brioche that only reveals itself when you are slicing through the structure to serve.
It is particularly true of home-cured or store-bought sausages, less true of soft mixtures like chicken livers, and more liable to be troublesome with sausages baked in a pan than with those formed on a pastry sheet. One way to minimize the gap or eliminate it completely is to be sure that the sausage is very hot at the moment you enclose it in the dough. Heat kills the yeast in a thin layer of dough, about ⅛ inch, all around the sausage, and this layer should cling to the sausage while the rest of the dough rises around it. Another way to close the gap is to bake the sausage in a closed pan, as suggested in a variation at the end of the Master Recipe. We are only giving prominence to this problem so that you will be aware of it and pleased with yourself when you have avoided it but not unduly disturbed when you have not. In such instances, however, when you want to serve a cold liver pâté en brioche, you will welcome the gap because you can siphon a deliciously flavored aspic into that space between meat and brioche, which will add immensely to the taste and appearance of the pâté slices when you serve them.
TIMING NOTE
With your brioche dough made the day before, and your sausage or meat mixture ready for pre-cooking, you should count on 2½ to 3½ hours from the time you start the process until the time you can serve. You will need 40 minutes for poaching, if you are using a sausage, an hour for the dough-with-sausage to rise before baking, an hour for baking, and 20 to 30 minutes for meat and brioche to settle before slicing. Remember that you can control the rising of dough, and you can keep the baked result warm; thus you may arrange your schedule as you wish.
SAUCISSON EN BRIOCHE
[Sausage Baked in Brioche Dough]
This is for a large sausage about 12 inches long and 1½ to 2 inches in diameter, such as the saucisson à cuire and the liver or foie gras sausage following it, or for a store-bought sausage that is to be cooked and served hot, like a Polish sausage (kielbasa) or Italian cotechino. You may also use the cooked chicken-liver sausage mixture; in this case, omit Step 2 in the following recipe.
For a 12-inch case, serving 6 as a hot first course, 4 as a main course, or 18 slices for a cocktail appetizer
1) The brioche dough—started the day before you plan to serve
Either the pain brioché dough;
Or the richer pâte à brioche fine (proportions for ½ lb. flour in either case)
Make the brioche dough, giving it one rise at room temperature and a second rise that finishes in the refrigerator. Dough must be well chilled before you form it in Step 3.
2) Poaching the sausage—about 40 minutes; omit this step if you are using the already cooked chicken-liver sausage mixture
The sausage (see introductory paragraph)
A loaf pan just large enough to hold the sausage (loaf shape recommended)
½ cup dry white wine or dry white French vermouth
3 or more cups beef bouillon simmering in a saucepan
1 imported bay leaf
Salt and pepper
Useful: a meat thermometer
Prick the sausage in several places with a pin and place in pan. Pour in the wine and enough simmering bouillon to cover sausage by 1 inch. Add seasonings and bring liquid to just below the simmer (water is shivering and almost bubbling). Cover loosely and maintain liquid at this state for 40 minutes. Remove sausage, peel off casing, and return to liquid until you are ready to proceed to Step 3. Sausage should be hot (around 165 degrees) for next step; reheat if necessary.
3) Achieving the free-form brioche shape
The chilled dough
The hot, cooked, and peeled sausage (or room-temperature chicken-liver sausage)
A large pastry sheet or tray 16 by 24 inches, covered with lightly floured waxed paper
A lightly buttered pastry sheet at least 12 by 16 inches in diameter
Rapidly roll the chilled brioche dough into a rectangle approximately 24 by 10 inches. With a pastry wheel or knife, cut off a 4- by 10-inch strip and refrigerate it. Roll remaining dough up on your pin and unroll it onto the waxed-paper-covered sheet or tray.
Center sausage on dough and quickly fold the two sides up over it; they should overlap by about 2 inches.
Working rapidly, fold over the 2 ends of the dough to enclose the sausage completely. Then to prevent sausage from breaking through dough, turn the buttered pastry sheet upside down on top of it, and reverse the two so that sausage will unmold itself seam-side down on the buttered sheet.
Brush off any flour on top of dough. Roll out reserved and refrigerated strip to about 15 by 4 inches in diameter; roll up on pin and then unroll over sausage.
Trim off excess dough from 2 ends, and press dough cover in place lightly with fingers. Set uncovered at a temperature of no more than 75 to 80 degrees. Let dough rise until it feels light and spongy-springy when touched—40 to 60 minutes. (Preheat oven in time for next step.)
4) Baking—about 1 hour; oven preheated to 425 degrees
1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water in a small bowl
A pastry brush
Scissors
A cooling rack
Just before baking, paint top of dough with egg glaze; let set a moment, and paint again.
Clip top of dough with scissors, going in at a slant about ⅜ inch deep and 2 inches across.
Set in middle level of preheated 425-degree oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until brioche has risen about double its height and begun to brown. Turn oven down to 350 degrees for 30–40 minutes more. It is done when you can begin to smell the sausage cooking, and when the brioche itself feels solid and makes a rather dry thumping noise when tapped. (Cover lightly with foil or brown paper if it is coloring too much before it is done.) Slide off pastry sheet onto rack, and let cool 20 to 30 minutes before serving.
5) Serving suggestions
Serve the sausage hot, warm, tepid, or cold (although a sausage is usually better warm or tepid than cold). When serving it hot as a first or main course, you can make a delicious brown sauce with the sausage-poaching liquid, using any of the suggestions in Volume I, pages 73–6.
(*) AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTES: You may keep the sausage warm for an hour or more in a 120-degree oven. If for some reason you cannot serve it when baked, let cool, then wrap airtight; reheat uncovered on a lightly buttered pastry sheet in a 400-degree oven for 20 minutes or so.
VARIATIONS
Forming the sausage in a loaf pan
For a 12- by 2-inch sausage you will need the long, rectangular 2-quart pan called an angel loaf, about 12 by 3¼ inches bottom diameter and 2½ inches deep. Follow Steps 1 and 2 in the Master Recipe, butter the inside of the loaf pan, then wrap the hot sausage in the dough on a paper-covered pastry sheet or tray as illustrated.
Turn a buttered 12-inch loaf pan upside down over the sausage. Reverse tray with sausage onto pan, unmolding sausage seam-side down into pan.
Brush off any flour from top of dough, and unroll reserved dough strip over sausage.
Press dough cover into place with fingers, pushing it lightly down against top, sides, and ends of sausage.
Let rise at a temperature of no more than 75 to 80 degrees for 40 to 60 minutes, until dough is light and springy; it will fill the pan by about three quarters. Glaze, clip top with scissors, and bake as described in preceding Master Recipe.
Baking in a covered pan
When you want to be sure there is no gap between meat and brioche, follow the preceding recipe, but rather than glazing and clipping the top of the dough when it has risen, cover the pan as described and illustrated for pain de mie. This works because the risen dough fills the pan only by three fourths; then, while it bakes, the dough will not only fill the covered pan completely, but will also press itself against the sausage meat. You may use any shape of pan you wish, including a f
luted brioche tin. The imported hinged cylindrical mold shown in the illustration can easily be adapted for sausage in brioche.
Cold pâté en Brioche with Aspic
Sausages, to our mind, are at their best when served hot or warm in brioche dough, while liver mixtures are delicious cold. We suggest the chicken-liver mixture, or the cooked pork and liver pâté with onions. Follow any of the preceding methods you wish; when the meat is fully encased and ready to rise, make a hole in the top of the dough and insert a well-oiled cone of foil or the tube from a pastry bag, letting its end touch the meat. After rising and baking, and when completely cold, pour in through the cone as much almost-set wine-flavored meat-jelly aspic as the case will hold. (See illustrated directions in the pâté en croûte section.) Then remove cone, wrap pâté airtight, and chill several hours or overnight. Pâté should be eaten within 4 to 5 days.