Ingredients for the Known Ground reconstruction
Ingredient amounts shown for 6 servings.
Known Ground reconstruction
- 1 lbboneless skinless pheasant meat, very cold and cubed
- 2egg whites, very cold
- 2 cupsheavy cream, very cold
- 2 tspkosher salt
- 1/4 tspwhite pepper
- 1/8 tspfreshly grated nutmeg
- 2 tbspunsalted butter, for molds
- 1pheasant carcass
- 4 cupsunsalted chicken stock
- 1 cupdemi-glace, for serving
Known Ground reconstruction
A food processor and fine-mesh sieve replace mortar and tammy. The mixture stays cold while absorbing cream, and the two historical presentations remain explicitly distinct. This version has not been personally tested by Known Ground. Cook the bird and any poultry forcemeat to 165°F (74°C) in its thickest portion.
Instructions
1. Simmer the carcass in the stock until reduced by half; strain to make pheasant fumet and reserve it for poaching and the sauce.
2. Process the cold pheasant with salt, pepper, and nutmeg to a paste. Add the egg whites gradually, pass through a fine sieve, and work in the cold cream a little at a time while keeping the bowl over ice.
3. For one mousse, butter a 1 1/2-quart mold, fill it, cover, and poach in a 325°F water bath to 165°F (74°C). For mousselines, shape 12 oval quenelles and poach them gently in fumet to the same temperature.
4. Reduce demi-glace with 1 cup fumet. Unmold the mousse or arrange one or two mousselines per person and serve with the fumet sauce.
Historical formula
Method
As already stated in various parts of this work, the constituents and their quantities are the same for _mousses_ and _mousselines_, and but for the basic ingredient, which is pheasant in this case, the procedure does not differ from that already described.
The base of the sauces served with these _mousses_ and _mousselines_ is a _fumet_ made from the carcasses and remains.
Source
A Guide to Modern Cookery — Recipe no. 1850.
Updated since publication
Last revised 8/21/2026. Evidence and limitations should be interpreted as described in the article.
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