Côtelettes de Faisan

Côtelettes de Faisan (cold pheasant cutlets) teach the discipline of cold sauces: chilling is part of the construction, not merely the serving temperature. Before you touch a pan, know this one thing: the cooked pheasant mousseline must be thoroughly cold and firm before you cut it, or the knife drags, the edges go ragged, and the coating reveals every flaw.

The book gives this entry in one sentence, directing the cook to proceed as for Côtelettes froides de Volaille, because its kitchen already had a saucier, clear stock never off the fire, metal cutlet molds, and aspic ready to pour. A salamander belonged to that brigade too, but it had no work here; this finish is built by cold. At home, a food processor, an 8-inch square pan, one saucepan, and the refrigerator produce eight small côtelettes. The individual molds, display plinth, and acreage of decorative jelly were brigade scaffolding, so they go. The pheasant mousseline, sauce chaud-froid, truffle decoration, and clear aspic glaze are the dish, so they stay.

Make the slab in the morning or the day before, then cut, mask, decorate, and glaze once it is firmly set. The sauce should fall over each côtelette in one opaque ivory sheet, glossy but never thick as paste. The first long chill before the knife arrives is the step that decides everything.