Recipe no. 350 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 169.
Ingredients
- lean bacon fat
- thrushes
- fresh pork
- truffles
- ham
- cognac
- madeira
- butter
- onion
- carrot
- bay leaf
- thyme
- white wine
- coulis sauce
- juice
- broth
- aspic jelly
Preparation
- Prepare the stuffingBrown the cut lean bacon fat with the flesh and innards of 4 thrushes; season, cool, then grind with fresh pork and strain through a sieve.
- Prepare the thrushesBone the number of thrushes desired, put into a bowl, season, sprinkle with cognac and madeira.
- Prepare the minceFinely cut truffles, ham and bacon fat; season and marinate.
- Fill the thrushesAfter an hour, mix the mince with the stuffing. Fill each thrush and reshape into a ball.
- Build the croustadeLine the mould with pastry with a layer of stuffing, arrange the thrushes, cover with stuffing and bacon fat.
- Bake the croustadeBake in the oven for about an hour and a half.
- Prepare the fumetBrown the carcasses and innards in butter with onion, carrot, bay leaf and thyme; moisten with white wine and reduce; moisten with coulis sauce and juice, cook an hour, strain and skim.
- FinishGlaze the croustade with the fumet at the moment of serving, or serve cold with aspic jelly.
Reboul's text
Put about 200 grams of lean bacon fat cut into dice into a sauté pan, to brown with the flesh and innards of 4 thrushes; season with salt, pepper and spices, let it cool, then pound with 500 grams of fresh pork lightly marbled with fat and strain through a sieve.
Bone the number of thrushes you wish to use, put them into a bowl, season with salt, pepper and spices; sprinkle with a drop of cognac and a small glass of madeira.
Prepare a small mince made of 2 or 3 truffles cut into small dice, the same volume of ham and of bacon fat likewise cut, season as for the thrushes and marinate in the same way.
An hour later, mix into this mince a few spoonfuls of the stuffing prepared. Lay the thrushes out on the table; put on each one a portion of this mixture, and reshape them, arranging them on a plate.
With a shortcrust pastry, line the mould you have chosen, after buttering it and placing it on a turntable. Put all round and at the bottom a layer of the prepared stuffing about 2 centimetres thick; arrange the thrushes inside, side by side; smooth the remaining stuffing over evenly, cover with a bard of bacon fat, pinch the edges of the pastry and bake in the oven for about an hour and a half.
Remove the fat and glaze lightly with a game fumet that you prepare as follows: put into a casserole a piece of butter the size of an egg with the carcasses and innards of your thrushes, brown them; add an onion and a carrot cut into dice, a bay leaf and a sprig of thyme. When everything is well browned, moisten with a glass of white wine which you let reduce, then add 2 spoonfuls of coulis sauce and as much good juice or broth; let it cook an hour, strain and skim of fat. To use it, this sauce is poured over the croustade at the moment of serving.
One may also cook the croustade covering it with a pastry lid decorated with imitation leaves; a small opening is left in the middle through which the steam escapes and through which the game fumet is introduced.
This croustade may be served cold; in that case one puts into the fumet, instead of juice, a few spoonfuls of aspic jelly.
Croustades of woodcock, of lark, etc., are made in the same way.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| reveni | to brown |
| assaboura | to season |
| mourre | to grind |
| desoussa | to bone |
| farço | stuffing |
| couire | to bake |
| bagna | to moisten |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 350, page 169. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.