When I first looked into the differences between galantines and ballotines, I was confused by what I saw, particularly about the topic of poaching versus roasting. Today, I’m compiling all I’ve learned about the similarities and differences between galantines and ballotines. I hope this gives you more clarity than I had when I first read about these French forcemeat dishes.

What’s the difference between galantines and ballotines?

Galantines and ballotines are both pâté stuffed into poultry skin, rolled and cooked. They’re different in the cooking methods and serving temperature. Galantines are poached and served cold. Ballotines are roasted and served warm. However, there’s disagreement about whether galantines and ballotines have a different cooking methods and about the serving temperature for ballotines.

Now that you know the gist of the differences and similarities, you probably want to know a little more about these two dishes. Like what they are exactly, more information on the similarities and differences and why most people think galantines and ballotines can both be roasted, though my research suggests otherwise. Let’s get started!

What is a galantine?

A galantine is a French stuffed poultry dish. Galantine is a flattened, deboned bird covered with forcemeat, inlays and/or a vegetable stuffing and rolled tightly, typically into a tube shape and wrapped in cheesecloth, muslin or plastic wrap. Galantines are cooked by poaching. You place the securely wrapped galantine into a pot of stock and poach for hours. Once cooked, pressed (sometimes) and cooled, you can apply a layer or two of aspic over the chilled galantine as a decorative element. Galantines are served cold like pâtés and terrines, often accompanied by decorative jellied squares.

Some galantines, especially in Filipino Christmas recipes, are sewn up to retain more of a natural chicken shape, instead of being rolled into a tube.

Galantines are not something you throw together; they’re a project.

“A galantine is not a last-minute dish. Depending on what items the chef has on hand and what has to be specially prepared, the finished dish can take up to a week to prepare.”

• Peter Hertzmann, self-taught expert on Chinese and French cookery

What is a ballotine?

A ballotine is a baked version of galantine. It’s roasted in the oven, served hot and you can make and eat it on the same day. Instead of rolling it into a tube, you can also roll a ballotine in a spiral so it’s more like a roulade.

Ballotines can also be made with a full chicken leg instead of the whole chicken or with other meats. The chicken leg version is called a petite ballotine and is a single-serve dish. According to the Spruce Eats article, Ballottines and Galantines, “Ballottines could also be prepared from other meats, such as lamb or veal, in which case it would involve deboning the shoulder and then rolling it around a stuffing of forcemeat and then tied with string rather than wrapping it in poultry skin.”

[Note: both spellings, ballotine and ballottine are acceptable.]

How are galantines and ballotines the same?

Galantines and ballotines are both made of forcemeat wrapped in poultry skin and secured for cooking. In both dishes, the forcemeat can be on its own or enhanced with other interior garnishes including vegetables, other meats and herbs.

How are galantines and ballotines different?

The previously undisputed way that galantines and ballotines are different is temperature. Galantines are served cold (or room temperature) like a pâté. Ballotines are served as a hot dish.

The other way galantines and ballotines are different is the cooking method.

In their book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie, Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman say, “The galantine is typically a poultry pâté that is rolled in the skin of the bird, poached, and cooled in stock, then served cold … The ballotine is the same thing, only it is roasted and served hot.”

In her legendary book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, The 40th Anniversary Edition, Julia Child says in her note on galantines, “The boned and stuffed duck in the following recipe [pâté en croûte] would be a galantine de canard rather than a canard en croûte if it were stuffed then wrapped in a damp towel, poached in meat stock, cooled with a weight over it, chilled, and glazed with a jelly stock.” She does not talk about ballotines.

In Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen, Fourth Edition, The Culinary Institute of America defines galantine as “Boned meat (usually poultry) that is stuffed into its own skin, rolled poached, and served cold, usually in aspic.”

Interestingly, ballotine is not in their glossary. However, in their section called Galantines and Roulades, the Garde Manger says two things about ballotines. They say, “A ballotine is a galantine that is wrapped in aluminum foil and roasted on a rack, then seared to provide additional color,” and “Ballotines may be served hot or cold.”

So … not everyone agrees that ballotines are served hot.

However, this cold ballotine is more of a modern invention. According to The Working Garde Manger, Al Meyer says, “Most ballotines are served hot, though in modern preparations, they can be served hot or cold; ballotines of chicken, veal, and pheasant are examples.”

He also specifies that ballotines are roasted and galantines are poached. After that, Al Meyer says, “What distinguishes a ballotine from a galantine is the cooking method and how it is to be served—whether the preparation served hot (ballotine) or cold (galantine).”

You see why researching this topic was confusing? And I’m not the only one.

Peter Hertzmann who, according to his website is “obsessed with French cookery” found the same thing. In his epic recipe, Galantine de Poularde: A Recipe with Comments, Peter says, “If all the definitions I found, both actual and implied, are averaged, the result would be something in the order of a galantine being a dish made from boned poultry or meat that is stuffed with a forcemeat, pressed into a cylindrical shape, and poached in an aspic-producing stock … Also, some ballotines are served hot or braised rather than poached. The more recipes I read, the more jumbled the definitions became in my mind.” [Emphasis mine.]

Recipe suggestion: If you’re going to make a true, poached galantine, look at Peter’s recipe (linked above) as it’s the most thorough recipe I’ve found for galantine on the internet and in all the books I’ve looked at. [Also the most intimidating but what the heck.]

With all that research laid out, you might still wonder…

Why do most people say galantine when it would be more accurate to say ballotine?

Not everyone in the culinary world takes these differences—cooking method and serving temperature—to heart when it comes to talking about galantines and ballotines. Including culinary legend, Jacques Pépin.

In the Sur La Table video called Jacques Pépin’s Chicken Galantine, where Jacques says, “It should not really take you more than 45 seconds to bone out the chicken,” his chicken galantine is baked in the oven.

In Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home by Julia Child and Jacques Pépin, the Jacques’s Turkey Galantine recipe is also baked in the oven. However, his general thoughts on galantines and ballotines are a bit vague. He says, “A galantine is a bird (or a meat or game animal, or fish) that has been completely boned and filled with a forcemeat, then shaped into an attractive loaf or sausage, cooked, and cooled.” No mention of the cooking methodology.

Jacques also mentions it can be served “warm as a ballottine.” And if you search for galantine recipes, you’ll find a fair number of them call for roasting rather than poaching.

Jacques Pépin has been a professional chef for longer than I’ve been alive, so I’d never say the research for this little article trumps his expertise French cooking (and he’s a real French guy too).

Instead, I’m here to share the research I found. You can see what all the confusion is about and decide for yourself on the issues of cooking methodologies, serving temperature and nomenclature.

Will it matter if you call a ballotine a galantine or vice versa? No, I really don’t think it will. But if you’re a beginner to the world of forcemeat like I am, this background helps you gain clarity. First confusion, then clarity.

And as Pablo Picasso allegedly said, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Conclusion

Well, that’s all for now folks. Galantines and ballotines are different though what these differences are depends on who you ask and what era you ask about. By the way, if you want to know more about the steps involved in making a galantine, check out my article How to Make Galantine: 20 Basic Steps You Can Master! In this article, I also include Jacques Pépin’s most helpful tutorial on how to debone a chicken for galantine. [The one mentioned I mentioned above in this article is great for watching but the one in my other article is a better tutorial to help you tackle the project of deboning a chicken like a champ!]