Timbale de Bécasse Metternich

Timbale de Bécasse Metternich (woodcock and foie gras in a pastry timbale) teaches one uncompromising principle: the roasted bird must become its own sauce. The suprêmes, meaning the breast fillets, fill the crust with foie gras sautéed at the last moment, while the remaining flesh and carcasses are pounded into a cullis, a deeply concentrated, sieved sauce. Heat that cullis gently. Boil it and the proteins tighten, turning it grey and grainy.

The source formula assumed a pâtissier shaping the decorated crust, a saucier pounding and straining the birds, a stockpot never off the fire, prepared truffle essence, and a tammy waiting on the bench. For one cook, one stove, one evening, an eight-inch ring replaces the brigade mould, brown poultry stock and preserved truffle juice stand in for the prepared essence, and a medium sieve followed by damp cheesecloth replaces the tammy. The decoration and folded-napkin service may be simplified because they are scaffolding. The shallow crust, underdone-at-withdrawal roast, last-minute foie gras, pounded carcasses, and double-strained cullis must stay because they are the dish.

When it reaches the table, the pastry should be deeply golden, the foie gras bronze at its edges, and the butter-mounted cullis glossy enough to gather around every suprême. Keep your attention for the sauce: once it has passed through the second sieve, it may grow hot, but it must never bubble.