Pain de Faisan en Belle-vue

Pain de Faisan en Belle-vue (cold moulded pheasant displayed in clear jelly) teaches the discipline of cold cookery: what you hide while warm becomes visible once the jelly sets. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is that the aspic must be clear, cleanly defatted, and only firm enough to hold. Cloudy or rubbery jelly dulls the pheasant and truffle instead of displaying them.

The classical kitchen assumed a saucier on staff, strong veal stock never off the fire, a garde-manger with ice at hand, and a salamander waiting for dishes that wanted colour. This pale preparation never goes under it. At home, Pain de Volaille Froid (No. 1709) remains the whole parent preparation, while one young pheasant replaces the chicken, a food processor and fine sieve replace pounding and the tammy, and a refrigerator with an ice bowl replaces a block of ice. The hand-pounding and towering rice socle are brigade scaffolding; keeping the bird uncoloured, reducing the cooking liquor, building the butter-yolk emulsion, arranging the truffled collops, and setting them beneath transparent jelly are the dish and must stay.

The finished pain should cut cold and close, pale pheasant framed by dark truffle beneath a clear, trembling coat, with enough richness from real butter to keep the game from tasting austere. One cook, one stove, one evening of work, then the refrigerator completes the set. Before the mould is lined, hold a spoonful of jelly against the light. That clear spoonful decides the dish.