Ingredients for the Known Ground reconstruction
Ingredient amounts shown for 8 servings.
Known Ground reconstruction
- 8pheasant breast suprêmes, opened through the thick side
- 6 ozfoie gras purée
- 4 ozraw foie gras, cut into small rectangles
- 2 ozfresh black truffle, thinly sliced
- 1egg white, lightly beaten
- 1 cupchicken mousse, cooked and chilled
- 1 cuppheasant mousse, cooked and chilled
- 1 cupbrown chaud-froid sauce
- 1 cupwhite chaud-froid sauce
- 3 cupsclear aspic
- 3 cupsunsalted chicken stock
- kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Known Ground reconstruction
Small loaf molds and prepared aspic replace specialist molds and restaurant jelly. Both mousse flavours and both chaud-froid colours are retained rather than collapsed into one generic coating. 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. Season the opened suprêmes. Spread one half with foie-gras purée, add raw foie-gras rectangles and truffle slices, cover with more purée, brush the edges with egg white, and close.
2. Wrap each suprême snugly in cheesecloth. Poach halfway submerged in stock in a moderate oven until the centres reach 165°F (74°C); cool in the liquor under light pressure, unwrap, and cut into medallions.
3. Coat half the medallions with chicken mousse and half with pheasant mousse; chill until set. Coat the chicken-mousse pieces with brown chaud-froid and the pheasant-mousse pieces with white chaud-froid; decorate each with truffle.
4. Set a layer of aspic in a deep square dish, alternate the two colours of medallion, cover with clear half-set aspic, and chill until firm. Serve cold.
Historical formula
Method
Raise the _suprêmes_ and prepare them exactly like the _suprêmes_ of fowl in “Chaud-froid Félix Faure” (No. 1691). Poach them; cool them, and cut them into medallions as explained.
Cover half of these medallions with chicken _Mousse_, and the other half with pheasant _Mousse_. Keep on ice for some time that the _Mousse_ may set. This done, coat the first lot with brown chaud-froid sauce and the second lot with white chaud-froid sauce. Deck each medallion with small pieces of truffle. Set them in a deep, square dish (alternating the two colours), and cover with very clear, succulent aspic jelly. Leave to set and serve on a block of ice.
Source
A Guide to Modern Cookery — Recipe no. 1861.
Updated since publication
Last revised 8/21/2026. Evidence and limitations should be interpreted as described in the article.
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