Tremollete

PERIOD: France, 15th century | SOURCE: Chiquart's "On Cookery" | CLASS: Authentic

DESCRIPTION: Giblet Sauce for Partridge

ORIGINAL RECEIPT:

In order to explain the Tremollete to the person who will be making it, take a great quantity of poultry gizzards and livers, prepare them very cleanly and put them in a pot, with beef and mutton bouillon to plump them; then put them on slender wooden spits and roast them over glowing coals. Then take enough bread for the quantity of the sauce which you are to make, and cut it into good slices and set these to toast on the grill; when your bread is toasted, get the amount of beef or mutton bouillon you need, and check that it is not too salty; then take good wine and verjuice and put it into the bouillon along with the soaked bread, in a good two-handled pot or bucket. Take your gizzards and livers, put them into a mortar and grind them thoroughly, moistening them with the bouillon in which your bread is soaking; then take your gizzards and livers out of the mortar and put them into the bouillon in which your bread is soaking. Take spices: white ginger, cinnamon, grains of paradise, a little pepper--but don't let it be too pronounced--nutmegs, mace and cloves; and of each of these spices watch that you put in only a moderate amount. Set it all to boil in good clean kettle, and then add in sugar, but not so much that it takes away the verjuice taste because it should not be sweetish. After this, take all of the roast partridge you have to the dressing table and the Household Stewards will come to decide how many of them are to be put on each dish to serve kings, dukes, counts--for example, six partridge on one dish, five on another, four on another, and three on another. And, over the top, the tremollete. And there should be an ample provision of two hundred cockerels and young poultry ready for serving in case the partridge runs out.

- Terence Scully, ed. and trans. Chiquart's "On Cookery" - A Fifteenth-century Savoyard Culinary Treatise. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc, 1986.

MODERN RECIPE:

• 1 pound of mixed chicken gizzards and livers
• 1 qt beef bouillon or lamb stock
• 1 C toasted white bread crumbs
• 1/4 C dry wine
• 2 T white grape juice
• 2 T wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/8 tsp powdered ginger
• Pinch of each cinnamon, allspice, black pepper, nutmeg, mace, and cloves

2. In a blender or food processor, grind the gizzards and livers to a paste, adding a quarter cup of bouillon or stock in the process.

3. In a saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups of bouillon or stock and bread crumbs. Let stand for fifteen minutes.

4. Add giblet paste and remaining ingredients to the bouillon and bread crumbs. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer five minutes, stirring frequently.

5. Serve over roast partridge or other fowl.

Yields two and a half cups of sauce. Serves four to six.

NOTES ON THE RECIPE:

This sauce is similar to the Chauden sauce given previously, but I have given it a sharper taste. I have reduced the amount of ingredients called for.

I substitute wine vinegar and white grape juice for verjuice.

I substitute allspice for grains of paradise.

I have chosen not to grill the gizzards after boiling them.

The sauce for Ffesaunte Rosted and Sauce Camelyne were also considered suitable for partridge.