Duchesses à la Reine

Duchesses à la Reine (little Choux filled with creamed poultry purée) teach one precise lesson: control the moisture. The shells must be baked thoroughly dry, the filling cold and supple, and the gelée, a savory poultry jelly, cool enough to coat without soaking the pastry. White within, dark on top, each bite should yield through a glossy jelly cap into smooth poultry cream while the Choux still has structure.

The source formula assumed pastry cooks turning out trays of Choux, a saucier on staff, cooked fowl ready in the cold pantry, and a stock never off the fire for clear jelly. A salamander has no part in this cold finish; nothing is browned after the shells leave the oven. At home, we make twenty-four, use plainly cooked chicken or guinea hen, replace a separately clarified stockpot jelly with good clear poultry broth strengthened by gelatin, and use a processor before the traditional sieve. The brigade staging is scaffolding and can go. The dry shell, silken purée, clear gelée, and black truffle are the dish, and they stay.

The one step that decides the finish is cooling the gelée until it falls from the brush like light syrup. Too warm and the Choux drinks it; too cold and it lands in lumps. Catch it at that glossy, slightly tacky moment and the truffle will cling exactly where it belongs. One cook, one stove, one evening.