Recipe: The Pillow of Fair Aurora

Name: l'Oreiller de la Belle Aurore
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 70 min
Total time: 110 min
Yield: 8 portions

By chef patrick ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5/5 (11 reviews) Starters

Prep 40 min

Cook 70 min

Total 1h50

Servings 8 serv.

Ingredients for 8 servings

A bit of history:

This rich pâté en croûte with a square shape (thus in the shape of a cushion) owes its name of Fair Aurora to Brillat-Savarin, indeed the mother of the illustrious gastronome was named Claudine-Aurore and was born Récamier and it is even said that she created this recipe.
This recipe was originally very rich, puff pastry base (originally prepared with lard instead of butter) filled with a 1st farce (dices of ham, fat bacon of veal, pork) then in the center truffles, pistachios, slices of ham and escalopes of sautéed sweetbreads, which were covered with the 2nd farce composed of fillets of partridges, blonde poultry livers, a pan of mushrooms and truffles and rounds of blanched beef marrow then the whole was covered with the 2nd puff pastry layer, glazed and then cooked in the oven.
The next day, when the cushion was cooled, a beautiful aspic was then poured into the chimneys.
Here is the recipe of the original Pillow of Fair Aurora, remade afterwards almost word for word by Lucien Tendret.
I helped, as a commis, chef Soustelle at Lucas-Carton in the making of this famous pillow which had been specially ordered by a wealthy customer.
Roger Roucou then owner of the famous restaurant now defunct: La Mère Guy in Lyon had us make this recipe just for us, and I still remember it

Step-by-step directions

The evening before

1- In a salad bowl, pass through a meat grinder the flesh of pheasant thighs, pork, veal, fat bacon then add the fine cognac, salt, pepper, add a little truffle juice if you have any and knead everything well together, put cling film and put in your fridge.
The next day 2 hours 30 minutes before eating

2- Take your baking sheet out of the oven and turn it on to 210°C (gas mark 7).

3- On this sheet, put parchment paper at the bottom, then place your 1st square of puff pastry, brush with egg wash all around to a width of 3 cm.

4- Spread then half of the farce (without touching the glazed edges) then in the center, place over the entire surface your pieces of foie gras, the truffle cut into batons, the liver and the pieces of liver and heart cut the same way as well as the two pheasant fillets cut into strips the other game fillets and the dices of wild boar then add and spread the rest of the farce.

5- Cover then with the 2nd puff pastry layer by pressing on the edges to seal both well and flute around. In the center, make 3 small holes where you will introduce a small cardboard cylinder of 1 cm (chimney) then glaze your pillow by making small decorations with a cookie cutter with the remaining dough.

6- Place your baking sheet then in the middle of the oven, stay at this high temperature for 30 minutes then lower to 150°C (gas mark 5) for the 90 minutes after (i.e. 2 hours of cooking).
Remove your Pillow, then let it cool to room temperature and when it is still warm (about 6 hours) pour your aspic and let cool like this (another 6 hours minimum) and cut it with a serrated knife into eight square portions, the best remaining to serve a sauce boat of périgueux sauce separately.
Then, the rest is nothing more than a sensory visit to a monument of gastronomy

Chef Patrick's Comment

Hello everyone. Yesterday Wednesday November 5th present as a judge for the final of this France championship of this wonderful competition for recipes for the making of "The Pillow of Fair Aurora". 20 selected candidates from all over France each with between 60 and 80 hours of work to succeed. Very proud to have attended and participated in the CEPROC in Paris in the resurrection of this mythical recipe.