Auguste Escoffier

3428 Timbale de Pigeonneaux la Fayette

Preparation info

  • Difficulty

    Complex

Appears in

#28Le Guide Culinaire

Le Guide Culinaire

By Auguste Escoffier

Published 1903

Method

  1. Prepare a Timbale case in a mould which is wider than deep.
  2. Cook 60 small crayfish together with a Mirepoix cooked in butter plus 3 dl (½ pt or 1¼ U.S. cups) white wine, 1 dl (3½ fl oz or ½ U.S. cup) brandy, salt, pepper and a little red pepper. When cooked, shell the tails and keep them warm in the cooking liquid passed through a fine strainer together with 100 g (3½ oz) slices of truffle.

    Finely pound the shells and trimmings of the crayfish together with 50 g (2 oz) butter; mix the resultant paste into 5 dl (18 fl oz or 24 U.S. cups) creamed Sauce Bechamel. Bring to the boil, pass through a fine strainer and keep warm.

  3. At the same time, cook en Casserole, 10 small young pigeons which have been wrapped in thin slices of salt pork fat. When cooked, remove the fat, cut off the breasts, discard the skin and keep the breasts warm in the juices of the pan which have been deglazed with white wine and a few tablespoons of melted Meat Glaze; add a further 100 g (3½ oz) slices of truffle.
  4. Cook 400 g (15 oz oz) short lengths of medium size macaroni in salted water, keeping it slightly firm; drain well and mix together with 100 g (3½ oz) butter, 150 g (5 oz oz) freshly grated Parmesan, a pinch of freshly milled pepper and one-third of the Sauce Bechamel flavoured with the Crayfish puree.

    Add the second third of this sauce to the crayfish tails and the rest to the breasts of the pigeons.

Presentation and Service

Place two-thirds of the macaroni in the Timbale case and arrange half the crayfish on top. Cover them with more of the macaroni and on top of this arrange the breasts of pigeon in a circle, place in the centre of these the other half of the crayfish tails, cover with the remaining macaroni and decorate the surface with nice slices of truffle.

© 1903 All rights reserved. Published by Taylor and Francis.