flipWhite Wine Fricassée of Fowl from the Officers' Table
White Wine Fricassée of Fowl from the Officers' Table
Why this dish? Live fowl were brought aboard in cages on deck for the officers' table. During a shipboard celebration or a happy port call, the galley cook prepared a French-style fricassée, heir to the bourgeois cuisine of the Enlightenment that La Pérouse, a gentleman, knew from his table in Albi.
Tender fowl in a white sauce, thickened with egg yolk, flavored with shallot, mushrooms, and white wine. The refined dish of the senior staff, far from the forecastle broth.
When the sea gave us some respite, or a happy port call had provided fresh fowl, I invited my officers to my table under the poop deck. There we served this fricassée in the French style: the fowl cut into pieces, simmered in butter and white wine, and the sauce bound with an egg yolk at the last moment—that is the whole secret, you must not let it boil afterwards, or it will curdle. Believe me, a good dinner among gentlemen, a thousand leagues from any land, is worth all the feasts of Versailles; it reminds men of what we endure the sea for.
- •Fowl (live chicken brought aboard) — one, in pieces (centerpiece)
- •Butter — a good knob (cooking, binding)
- •Flour — a spoonful (thicken the sauce)
- •White wine — a cup (sauce, acidity)
- •Shallot and mushrooms — as available (aromatics, umami)
- •Egg yolk — one (final binding)
White Wine Fricassée of Fowl from the Officers' Table
Tender fowl in a white sauce, thickened with egg yolk, flavored with shallot, mushrooms, and white wine. The refined dish of the senior staff, far from the forecastle broth.
Why this dish? Live fowl were brought aboard in cages on deck for the officers' table. During a shipboard celebration or a happy port call, the galley cook prepared a French-style fricassée, heir to the bourgeois cuisine of the Enlightenment that La Pérouse, a gentleman, knew from his table in Albi.
When the sea gave us some respite, or a happy port call had provided fresh fowl, I invited my officers to my table under the poop deck. There we served this fricassée in the French style: the fowl cut into pieces, simmered in butter and white wine, and the sauce bound with an egg yolk at the last moment—that is the whole secret, you must not let it boil afterwards, or it will curdle. Believe me, a good dinner among gentlemen, a thousand leagues from any land, is worth all the feasts of Versailles; it reminds men of what we endure the sea for.
Ingredients (period version)
- Fowl (live chicken brought aboard) — one, in pieces (centerpiece)
- Butter — a good knob (cooking, binding)
- Flour — a spoonful (thicken the sauce)
- White wine — a cup (sauce, acidity)
- Shallot and mushrooms — as available (aromatics, umami)
- Egg yolk — one (final binding)
Ingredients
- Free-range chicken, cut into pieces — 1 (1.2 kg) (centerpiece)
- Butter — 40 g (cooking)
- Flour — 1 tbsp (light roux)
- Shallots — 2 (aromatic)
- Button mushrooms — 200 g (umami)
- Dry white wine — 20 cl (sauce)
- Chicken broth — 25 cl (sauce)
- Egg yolk + cream — 1 yolk + 3 tbsp (final binding)
- Parsley, salt, pepper — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Sauté the chicken pieces in butter without browning too much; set aside.
- Sweat the sliced shallots and mushrooms in the same pot.
- Sprinkle with a spoonful of flour, then deglaze with white wine and broth.
- Return the chicken, cover, and simmer for 35 to 40 minutes over low heat.
- Off the heat, mix the egg yolk with the cream and stir into the sauce without boiling.
- Sprinkle with parsley, adjust seasoning, and serve immediately.
How it was made : Naval officers maintained a separate table on board, supplied with live animals (fowl, sometimes a sheep or pig) kept in cages on deck. The egg yolk-thickened fricassée is a classic of 18th-century French cuisine, codified in bourgeois cookbooks of the era (Menon, La Varenne in the previous century).
The contemporary twist : A grating of fresh lemon zest over the sauce at the last moment evokes the citrus fruits carried as antiscorbutics and cuts nicely through the velvety texture.
Jean-François de La Pérouse · Charactorium
