Une froide sage

Pour faire une froide sauge, prenez vostre poulaille et mettez par quartiers, et la mettez cuire en eaue avec du sel, puis la mettez reffroidier: puis broyez gingembre, fleur de canelle, graine, giroffle, et broyez bien sans couler; puis broyez du pain trempé en l’eaue des poucins, percil le plus, sauge et un pou de saffren en la verdure pour estre vertgay, et les coulez par l’estamine, (et aucuns y coulent des moyeux d’œufs durs) et deffaites de bon vinaigre: et icelles deffaites, mettez sur vostre poulaille, et avec et pardessus icelle poulaille mettez des œufs durs par quartiers et gettez vostre sausse pardessus tout. -LM 244
To make a cold sage, quarter poultry and cook in water with salt, then cool. Grind well some ginger, cassia buds, grains of paradise, and cloves, and do not strain. Then grind bread moistened with the broth from the chicken, plenty of parsley, some sage, and a little saffron among the greens to make them bright green, and sieve (and some sieve hard-boiled egg yolks with this). Add some good vinegar and ladle over the cooked poultry. Place quartered hard boiled eggs atop the poultry and pour the sauce over it.
Ingredients

Chicken, Sage, Parsley, Ginger, Cinnamon, Grains of Paradise, Long Pepper, Salt, Sugar, Red Wine Vinegar, Eggs, Chicken Stock, Cornstarch

Contains Wheat
Seitan (Wheat Gluten), Sage, Parsley, Ginger, Cinnamon, Grains of Paradise, Long Pepper, Salt, Sugar, Red Wine Vinegar, Vegetable Stock, Cornstarch

This recipe is straightforward since the sauce is cold, we need only to rely on our taste to guide its redaction. We are instructed to finely grind a great deal of sage and parsley together, add our major spices, grind bread to thicken, and add the resultant stock from our boiled chicken to make the sauce the right consistency – which is to say thick. We are told the sauce should be very green, and very thick, and should be poured over the chicken cold. As in other recipes, I have chosen starch over breadcrumbs, and so the stock must be heated to activate it. We cool the stock before adding it to the mixture to preserve its “cold” state throughout. I thickened the sauce to a consistency that coats the meat attractively, and determined the balance of flavors by taste to reach this redaction. I chose LV’s garnish of chopped egg whites and included the egg yolks in the sauce rather than LM’s garnish of quartered eggs.

References

LM 244, DF49, LV 73

Modern Redaction
1 oz.Sage, fresh
2 oz.Parsley, fresh
1.5 t.DF Major Spices
1/2 t.Salt
2 T.Sugar
1/4 c.White Wine Vinegar
6 eachEggs, hard boiled, divided
2 c.Chicken Stock
2 T.Cornstarch
1 eachWhole chicken, pieced
  • Poach the chicken pieces in salted water and allow to cool.
  • Combine all but the Egg Whites, Stock and Cornstarch in a blender and blend on high until completely pureed
  • Bring 1 cup of the Stock to a simmer. Make a slurry from the Cornstarch and 2 T. of water.
  • Add the slurry to the Stock, whisking constantly, and allow to simmer until it thickens.
  • Remove from the heat and add the other 1 cup of stock to cool the mixture
  • Add the thickened stock to the blender and blend until completely pureed.
  • Strain well, removing all solids. You may further puree them using the strained sauce as liquid.
  • Discard the solids you do not wish to keep pureeing further.
  • Lay your chicken pieces on the platter and cover completely with the sauce
  • Chop the remaining Egg Whites and sprinkle them on top of the entire dish
Process Photos