Mousse Froide de Jambon à l’Alsacienne

Mousse Froide de Jambon à l’Alsacienne (cold Alsatian-style ham mousse) teaches one thing above all: cold preparations are built by timing, not force. The ham mousse must be level and fully set, the foie-gras Parfait cold enough to hold the spoon’s shell marks, and the Madeira aspic half-melted, thick but pourable, before it covers them. Rush one layer and the next runs through it.

The original assumed a garde-manger with fine mousse and foie-gras Parfait ready, a saucier on staff, chicken stock never off the fire, brigade quantities, and a block of ice carved for service. A salamander, useful elsewhere in the canon, has no place in this cold preparation. Your honest equivalents are concentrated stock reinforced with measured gelatin, an 18 cm square dish, prepared foie-gras Parfait from a good charcutier, and crushed ice in a shallow tray. The brigade scale and ice carving were scaffolding, so they go; the fine mousse, shaped foie-gras shells, Madeira aspic, and separate setting of each layer are the dish, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the dish shows a pale rose foundation beneath clear amber aspic, with ivory foie-gras shells suspended between them as neatly as decoration beneath glass. Before touching a pan, clear one perfectly flat shelf in the refrigerator. Level, complete chilling between additions is the step that decides the whole dish.