Gratin Forcemeat for Ordinary Hot, Raised Pies

Farce à gratin pour pâtés chauds ordinaires (gratin forcemeat for ordinary hot raised pies) teaches the decisive use of heat: bacon, veal, and calf's liver must brown fast and dark before they are worked smooth. That browning is not a prelude. It is the dish, the deep savor that gives gratin its name here.

The brigade formula assumed a saucier, the sauce cook, beside a pot of reduced Espagnole never far from the fire, a mortar, a tamis, or fine drum sieve, and enough hands to pound warm meat while the sauce stayed cold. Despite the name, the salamander does not make this forcemeat; it belongs only to certain finishes in Gratins (No. 268), where a strong home broiler is its honest equivalent. For one cook, one stove, one evening, I have halved the formula, replaced the mortar's labor with a food processor, and kept the tamis because the final pass is not brigade scaffolding. It is what makes the paste fine.

Keep the mixture cool as the butter and yolks go in. If it turns greasy, stop and chill it; ça se rattrape. Before you touch the pan, remember this: hard, fast browning is the step that matters most.