Fine Chicken Forcemeat or “Mousseline”

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Digital scale accurate to 1 g
• •3 to 7 cup food processor with metal blade
• •8-inch fine-mesh tamis or sturdy fine sieve
• •Two nesting stainless-steel mixing bowls
• •Flexible bowl scraper and wooden spoon
• •Two tablespoons for shaping
• •Wide saucepan
• •Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Chill the equipment

   Put the food processor bowl, metal blade, fine sieve, and smaller mixing bowl in the cold for 20 minutes. Keep the chicken and cream refrigerated. Fill the larger bowl with the ice and nest the smaller bowl securely inside it. Every surface touching the farce must feel sharply cold before you begin.

   If the processor bowl cannot be chilled, rinse it with ice water and dry it thoroughly. Water left inside would loosen the emulsion.
2. 2

   Make the chicken paste

   Inspect the chicken closely and cut away every tendon, membrane, fatty edge, and bruised patch. Put the cold cubes in the processor with the salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. Process in short pulses, scraping down the bowl often, until the chicken becomes a dense, sticky paste with no visible pieces. If the bowl begins to feel warm or the paste develops a greasy shine, stop and chill everything for 10 minutes before continuing.

3. 3

   Work in egg white

   Beat the egg white just enough to loosen it, without making it foamy. Add it to the chicken paste in three small additions, processing briefly after each until it disappears completely. Scrape the bowl between additions. The finished paste should be pale, cohesive, and elastic enough to cling heavily to the scraper.

4. 4

   Pass the fine sieve

   Set the chilled sieve over the bowl nested in ice. Press the chicken paste through with a firm flexible scraper, working a few spoonfuls at a time, and discard the stringy residue that refuses to pass. This is laborious, but it is not ceremonial fuss: the sieve removes the last fibers and gives the mousseline its fine, even texture.

5. 5

   Emulsify with cream

   Work the sieved paste with a wooden spoon for 1 to 2 minutes while it remains over ice. Add the cold cream in six small additions, stirring each one fully into the paste before adding the next. Turn the bowl as you work and scrape its sides clean. The mousseline will soften into a satin-smooth cream that holds a rounded furrow from the spoon. If cream beads appear at the edge or the paste suddenly turns slack, stop. Ça se rattrape: spread it against the cold bowl, leave it over ice for 10 minutes, then stir gently from the center until cohesive and continue by teaspoons. Pouring faster only warms and breaks it.

6. 6

   Poach a test

   Bring a small saucepan of water to 175 to 180°F (79 to 82°C), where the surface barely trembles. Drop in a rounded teaspoon of mousseline and poach gently for 3 to 4 minutes, until its center reaches 165°F (74°C). Cut it open. The interior should be moist, fine-grained, and free of liquid pockets. Taste for white pepper and nutmeg, adjusting the raw mixture if needed. If the test leaks cream, return the bowl to the ice and restore the emulsion before shaping anything else.

7. 7

   Shape or stuff

   For individual Mousselines, shape 12 small ovals between two wet tablespoons and poach them at 175 to 180°F (79 to 82°C), turning once, for 6 to 8 minutes or until each center reaches 165°F (74°C). Never boil them; hard bubbling makes them coarse and ragged. Alternatively, spoon the raw mousseline into prepared poultry, vegetables, or shellfish and cook the filled preparation immediately until the center of the farce reaches 165°F (74°C). Serve the poached Mousselines warm, or carry the stuffing directly into its finished dish. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose lean chicken breast and trim it ruthlessly. Skin, loose fat, and connective tissue interfere with the fine emulsion; modest chicken handled carefully will serve you better than expensive chicken allowed to grow warm.
• •The 14 g of salt is the exact home-scale proportion of the source formula, and it is assertive because mousseline commonly seasons a larger stuffed preparation. Weigh it. Flaky and fine salts occupy very different volumes.
• •Use real heavy cream with at least 36% fat. Light cream cannot build the same structure, and nondairy substitutes do not behave invisibly here. The cream is part of the technique.
• •Do not omit the egg white in this version. Chicken supplies albumen of its own, but the added white helps the small batch absorb the full measure of cream without losing its hold.
• •A small processor bowl keeps the blade in contact with this home-scale quantity. In a very wide bowl, the chicken rides beneath the blade and smears unevenly instead of becoming a clean paste.

Advance Preparation

• •The chicken can be trimmed and cubed up to 1 day ahead. Keep it tightly covered in the cold, then chill it further while the processor bowl and blade are prepared.
• •Finished raw mousseline may be covered directly against its surface and refrigerated for up to 6 hours. Keep it below 40°F (4°C), and do not stuff poultry in advance; fill and cook immediately.
• •Poached Mousselines may be chilled promptly and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Reheat them gently in barely trembling water, never at a boil.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 125g)