Suprême de Volaille Jeannette

Suprême de Volaille Jeannette (poached chicken breast cloaked in a white cold-setting sauce and savory jelly) teaches that temperature can build a dish as surely as heat. A suprême is the breast fillet; chaud-froid is a sauce cooked hot and served cold. It must meet the chilled chicken at the narrow moment when it is fluid enough to cloak yet cool enough to hold, leaving eight ivory ovals under clear jelly, green tarragon above and foie-gras Parfait beneath.

The original kitchen assumed a saucier on staff, a stock never off the fire, a cold room, and hands to carve ice. A salamander has no work in this cold dish. At home, one fowl fortifies good unsalted stock, powdered gelatin supplies the body of a naturally rich jelly, and a square dish nested in crushed ice replaces the carved block. Eight collops, two for each guest, replace the brigade quantity. The carved ice and extra hands are scaffolding, so they go; the half-inch aspic base, oval collops, white chaud-froid, blanched tarragon, foie-gras Parfait, and half-melted chicken jelly are the dish, so they stay.

Do not hurry the coating. If the chaud-froid runs away from the chicken, it is too warm; if it sets in ridges, it is too cold. Ça se rattrape, and the method gives you both corrections. One cook, one stove, one evening of work, then the refrigerator keeps watch. Before you touch the pan, know this: the coating temperature decides the dish.