1515—Poularde Sainte Alliance

Heat in butter ten fine truffles seasoned with salt and pepper; sprinkle them with a glassful of excellent Madeira, and leave them to cool thus in a thoroughly sealed utensil. Now put these truffles into a fine pullet, and No. 250, Poëlings it just in time for it to be sent to the table.

When the pullet is ready, quickly cook as many ortolans, and toss in butter as many collops of foie gras as there are diners, and send them to the table at the same time as the pullet, together with the latter’s No. 250, Poëlings-liquor, strained and in a sauceboat.

The waiter in charge should be ready for it with three assistants at hand, and he should have a very hot chafer on the sideboard. The moment it arrives he quickly removes the suprêmes, cuts them into slices, and sets each one of these upon a collop of foie gras, which assistant No. 1 has placed ready on a plate, together with one of the truffles inserted into the pullet at the start.

Assistant No. 2, to whom the plate is handed forthwith, adds an ortolan and a little juice, and then assistant No. 3 straightway places the plate before the diner.

The pullet is thus served very quickly, and in such wise as to render it a dish of very exceptional gastronomical quality.

N.B.—The name “Sainte Alliance” which I give to this dish (a name that Brillat-Savarin employs in his “Physiology of Taste” in order to identify a certain famous toast) struck me as an admirable title for a preparation in which four such veritable gems of cookery are found united—the suprêmes of a fine pullet, foie gras, truffles, and ortolans.

This dish was originally served at the Carlton Hotel in 1905.