Ingredients for the Known Ground reconstruction
Ingredient amounts shown for 10 servings.
Known Ground reconstruction
- 6 tbspunsalted butter, divided
- 6 ozfresh black truffle, crescents and slices; divided
- 2 lbraw partridge panada-and-butter forcemeat
- 8 ozgame-liver gratin forcemeat
- 12small truffled partridge quenelles, poached
- 8 ozsmall mushrooms, cooked
- 1 cupMadeira sauce, reduced until binding
- 10roast partridge breast suprêmes, cooked to 165°F
- 1 1/2 cupsstrong Poivrade sauce, Diane sauce
Diane sauce
- 1 cupheavy cream, whipped
- 2hard-cooked egg whites, cut in small crescents
Known Ground reconstruction
A shallow rounded ovenproof bowl replaces the timbale mold. The Diane cross-reference is resolved against the 1903 sauce formula: strong Poivrade, whipped cream, truffle crescents, and hard-cooked egg white. 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. Butter a shallow 3-quart rounded mold liberally and line it in overlapping rows with truffle crescents. Cover bottom and sides with a roughly 2/3-inch layer of raw partridge forcemeat and poach it for a few minutes in a 325°F oven until just set.
2. Spread game gratin forcemeat over the first layer. Combine poached truffled quenelles, mushrooms, and truffle slices with reduced Madeira sauce; fill the mold, cover with remaining raw forcemeat, and smooth the top.
3. Cover and poach in a 325°F water bath for 30 to 35 minutes, continuing until the centre reaches 165°F (74°C). Rest 10 minutes and unmold.
4. For the Diane sauce, heat the strong Poivrade, then fold in whipped cream at service and add truffle and hard-cooked-egg-white crescents. Crown the timbale with hot roast suprêmes, surround its base with a thread of Diane sauce, and serve the rest separately.
Historical formula
Method
Line a liberally-buttered, shallow mould with crescents of truffle arranged in superposed rows, and then completely cover the bottom and sides of the mould with a layer, two-thirds in. thick, of raw partridge forcemeat.
Place the mould in the front of the oven that the forcemeat may be poached; and then spread another layer of _gratin_ forcemeat of game.
Fill the utensil with a garnish of small quenelles consisting of truffled partridge forcemeat, mushrooms and slices of truffles, cohered with a reduced Madeira sauce. Cover the garnish with a small coat of forcemeat, and poach in the _bain-marie_ for from thirty to thirty-five minutes.
When about to serve, turn out on a dish, and deck the timbale with a crown of partridges’ _suprêmes_, raised from birds fresh from the spit or the oven. Surround the base of the timbale with a thread of Diane sauce, and send a sauceboat of the latter separately.
Source
A Guide to Modern Cookery — Recipe no. 1872.
Updated since publication
Last revised 8/21/2026. Evidence and limitations should be interpreted as described in the article.
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