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Cutlets Chaudfroid à la Russe
Ingredients.
Best end of a neck of Mutton.
One pint of Aspic Jelly.
One gill of good Glaze. * For detailed directions how to cut and trim cutlets, see Mutton Cutlets à la Soubise, page 91.
Macédoine of Vegetables, consisting of Carrot, Potato, Cauliflower, Peas, Green Haricots, French Beans, Beetroot, Cucumber, all of which must be neatly cut in equal sizes, and carefully boiled in separate water, washed in cold water after, "to preserve the colour."
Half a pint of thick Mayonnaise Sauce.
This is an ingredients page in the older style: the method lives partly in the cross-reference to Mutton Cutlets à la Soubise and partly in the assumed knowledge of a professional kitchen. What follows fills in the gaps.
- What the dish actually isTrimmed cutlets are cooked, pressed and chilled, then masked with mayonnaise stiffened with aspic (mayonnaise collée), decorated with the macédoine, and finally glazed with near-setting aspic. It is served cold, and nothing about it is improvised at the last minute.
- The hinge: temperature of the aspicThe aspic must be used at the point where it is syrupy but not yet set, and the cutlets must be thoroughly cold. Warm aspic slides off and melts the mayonnaise coating; set aspic goes on in lumps. Keep the jug in a bowl of tepid water and work fast.
- A gillIn this British book a gill is a quarter of an imperial pint, about 5 fl oz or a generous half cup. The half pint of mayonnaise is roughly 10 fl oz.
- GlazeNot a sugar glaze. Glace de viande is brown stock reduced to a dark, sticky syrup that sets firm when cold. A good commercial veal or beef demi-glace reduced further will stand in; the recipe allows a gill of it, for glossing the cutlets.
- Aspic jellyVictorian aspic was clarified, well-seasoned stock, commonly set by the gelatine from calf's feet or knuckle, though isinglass or commercial gelatine was often added. A strong clarified stock with about 1/2 oz powdered gelatine per pint gives the firmness needed for coating; it was usually sharpened with a little vinegar or lemon and should be worth eating on its own.
- MuttonBest end of neck is the rack. Mutton in the modern sense is rarely sold; a rack of lamb cut into single-bone cutlets, well trimmed and the bones scraped clean, is the practical substitute. Allow two cutlets a person, so a rack of eight serves four as a cold entrée.
- The macédoineCut everything to an even small dice, about a quarter inch, and cook each vegetable separately so colours and flavours stay distinct. The cold refresh is what the original means by preserving colour. Keep the beetroot entirely apart until the moment of use or it will stain the lot.
- ServingAssemble on a chilled dish, overlapping the cutlets in a ring or a line, with the dressed macédoine in the centre and chopped aspic around the edge. Hold refrigerated and serve within a few hours; a mayonnaise-masked cold meat should not sit out on a warm buffet.
Chaud-froid — literally hot-cold — names the technique rather than the dish: something cooked hot, then served cold under a sauce set with gelatine, so that it holds a smooth, carvable coating. It belongs to the grand-hotel and country-house repertoire of the later nineteenth century, when dinner was served à la russe in successive courses from the sideboard and cold entrées were prized because they could be built, decorated and held in the larder while the kitchen dealt with the hot courses. The tag à la russe here points to the mayonnaise masking and the diced vegetable garnish, the same family of ideas that produced Russian salad; the association of Russia with elaborate cold mayonnaise work is generally traced to French chefs working in St Petersburg earlier in the century. Its presence in a book of high-class recipes is a reminder that this sort of cookery was aimed at a household with a cold larder, a stockpot always going, and time to cut seven vegetables to matching dice.