Quenelles is a traditional British recipe, based on Charles Elmé Francatelli's recipe of 1861, for a classic meatball made from veal, cooked bread panada, hard-boiled egg yolks and butter that are bound with raw egg yolks, moulded into shape and boiled before use as a garnish. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Quenelles.
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This is a classic recipe for a Victorian version of Quenelles that's derived from the chef, Charles Elmé's 1861 volume, The Cook's Guide and Housekeeper's & Butler's Assistant. Below you will find both the recipe in its original form and a modern redaction.
Original Recipe
Forcemeat, for the quenelles here alluded to, is prepared as follows: viz.,—to half a pound of lean veal, pounded and rubbed through a sieve, add two ounces of panda, No. 184, six hard yolks of eggs, an ounce of butter, nutmeg, pepper, and salt, and three or four yolks of raw eggs; pound all this in a mortar, rub it through a wire sieve, and then, having rolled this preparation out (with some flour shaken over the table) into the form of toy-marbles, throw these into some water kept ready boiling in a stewpan for the purpose; they will be done in six minutes; after being drained, put them into the mock-turtle.
Modern Redaction
This is derived from Francatelli's recipe 140 for clear mock-turtle soup, but is used so commonly that it necessitates it's own entry.
Ingredients:
225g lean veal
60g paanda
6 hard-boiled egg yolks
30g butter
freshly-grated nutmeg, to taste
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
3 or 4 raw egg yolks
Method:
Slice the veal, pound in a mortar (or blitz in a blender) to puree then rub through a fine-meshed sieve to make a meat paste.
Return the meat paste to the mortar (or blender) then mix in the paanda, hard-boiled egg yolks, butter and seasonings. Pound until smooth then work in the raw egg yolks to form a dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface then from your quenelles.
If making for mock-turtle soup roll into balls about 1 to 1.5cm in diameter. If using for other soups, use two teaspoons to shape the dough into ovals.
Bring a pan of water to a boil, add the quenelles and cook for 6 minutes, or until cooked through. Drain and sue as a garnish for soups.
