Cullises

Coulis de volaille (poultry cullis) teaches the difference between thickness and body. Rice thickens, but the poultry gives body, and the final monter au beurre, whisking in cold butter, gives the surface its satin gleam. Before touching a pan, know the one true thing: the cullis must be perfectly smooth and hot, but no longer boiling, when that butter goes in.

The old formula assumed a saucier, a hot bain-marie waiting through service, and either rice or a finished sauce already at hand in professional quantity. Here the rice route keeps the book's proportion, 2 to 3 ounces per pound of fowl, while a blender and fine sieve replace repeated pounding and straining. Making a separate finished sauce is brigade scaffolding and goes; the measured rice, fine straining, buttered surface, and last-minute butter are the dish and stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The finished cullis is pale ivory, deep with chicken, soft on the spoon without becoming stodgy, and threaded with breast meat cut julienne-fashion. The decisive step is the monter au beurre: take the pot off the heat, whisk in cold butter piece by piece, and never let the soup boil afterward.