serve the shape. Scoop out the yolk; mix this with a teaspoonful of
chopped truffles, a little pepper and salt, and put it back very neatly
into the whites. Coat the eggs with aspic jelly several times. Serve
them upside down, that is, the uncut part upward. Put a spoonful of
half-mayonnaise (mayonnaise mixed with whipped cream) on each, and a few
specks of chopped truffle.

A variety of this dish has anchovy paste in very small quantity in place
of truffle, and the mayonnaise just made pink with it.

XIX.

GALANTINES, BALLOTINES, ETC.

Galantines are so useful and handsome a dish in a large family, or one
where many visitors are received, that it is well worth while to learn
the art of boning birds in order to achieve them. Nor, if the amateur
cook is satisfied with the unambitious mode of boning hereafter to be
described, need the achievement be very difficult.

Experts bone a bird whole without breaking the skin, but to accomplish
it much practice is required; and even where it is desirable to preserve
the shape of the bird, as when it is to be braised, or roasted and
glazed for serving cold, it can be managed with care if boned the easier
way. However, if nice white milk-fed veal can be obtained, a very
excellent galantine may be made from it, and to my mind to be preferred
to fowl, because, as a matter of fact, when boned there is such a thin
sheet of meat that it but serves as a covering for the force-meat (very
often sausage-meat), and although it makes a savory and handsome dish,
it really is only glorified sausage-meat, much easier to produce in some
other way. This is, of course, not the case with turkey; but a boned
turkey is so large a dish that a private family might find it too much
except for special occasions. On the other hand, galantines of game,
although the birds may be still smaller, are so full of flavor that it
overwhelms that of the dressing.

The following process of boning, however, applies to all birds. To
accomplish the work with ease and success, a French boning-knife is
desirable, but in the absence of one a sharp-pointed case-knife may do.
Place the bird before you, breast down, with the head towards you. Cut a
straight line down the back through skin and flesh to the bone. Release
with the left thumb and forefinger the skin and flesh on the left side
nearest to you, and with the right hand keep cutting away the flesh from
the bone, pulling it away clear as it is cut with the