Ingredients for the Known Ground reconstruction
Ingredient amounts shown for 6 servings.
Known Ground modern adaptation
- 2whole pheasants, patted dry; substitute comparable dressed game birds by size
- 2 tbspbutter or neutral oil
- 1shallot, finely chopped
- 1 cupgame stock or unsalted chicken stock
- 1 tspkosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1/2 tspblack pepper
- 1 lbground pheasant, partridge, chicken, or turkey, for a practical forcemeat
- 1egg
- 1/3 cupheavy cream
- 6 slicesbacon, for lining the mold
Known Ground modern adaptation
Quantities, yield, timings, and home-kitchen sequencing below are a Known Ground modern, untested adaptation. They are practical estimates informed by the named historical preparation and are not original Escoffier measurements or firsthand testing.
Ingredients
- 2 whole pheasants — patted dry; substitute comparable dressed game birds by size
- 2 tbsp butter or neutral oil
- 1 shallot — finely chopped
- 1 cup game stock or unsalted chicken stock
- 1 tsp kosher salt — plus more to taste
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 lb ground pheasant, partridge, chicken, or turkey — for a practical forcemeat
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 6 slices bacon — for lining the mold
Instructions
1. Heat the oven to 325°F. Butter a 1 1/2-quart loaf pan or terrine and line it with bacon if using.
2. Pulse ground poultry, shallot, egg, cream, salt, pepper, and any named garnish until combined; do not overwork.
3. Pack into the mold, cover, and set in a roasting pan. Add hot water halfway up the sides.
4. Bake until the center reaches 165°F. Cool, then refrigerate covered before slicing; serve cold or gently rewarmed as the source suggests.
Historical formula
Method
_Poële_ a pheasant, keeping it underdone; raise its _suprêmes_, and cut these into thin collops.
With a _fumet_ prepared from the carcass and the _poëling_-liquor, prepare a brown chaud-froid sauce. Coat the collops with this sauce, and also coat ten cooked and grooved mushrooms with a white chaud-froid sauce.
_Clothe_ a dome-mould with clear aspic jelly, and deck it with truffles.
Set the collops of pheasant and the chaud-froid-coated truffles inside, alternating the two in so doing; fill up the mould with the same jelly, and let it set on ice. When about to serve, turn out after the manner of an aspic, on a low cushion of rice or semolina, lying on a round dish.
Border with neatly-cut _croûtons_ of very clear aspic.
Source
A Guide to Modern Cookery — Recipe no. 1854.
Published after editorial review
Last revised 8/17/2026. Evidence and limitations should be interpreted as described in the article.
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