Important: Safety Warning
This recipe calls for animal brains or related nervous-system tissue. Cattle brain and spinal tissue can transmit bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the cause of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, which is fatal and has no treatment.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Entrées: Bourgeoise
Crème de veau is a cream of veal steamed in a mould. It is served à la Périgueux, with Périgueux sauce. À la Richelieu, it is steamed in a mould lined with chopped truffles, and served with truffle sauce. A la Jardinière, the mould is ornamentally lined with vegetables, and it is served with a thin brown sauce; this dish is frequently called Chartreuse à la Bourgeoise. These creams or boudins are also steamed in small timbale or bombe moulds. They may be ENTRÉES. lined in the same manner, or served with a vegetable garnish, or à la Bourgeoise with mixed vegetables.
Quenelles de veau à la purée de champignons are poached quenelles of veal forcemeat served with a purée of mushrooms. They are also served au jambon, with ham sauce, with brown or white sauce, or with any dressed vegetable.
As Chaudfroid de quenelles aux cerises, they are served cold with a compote of cherries, or with cherry sauce.
Soufflé à la Bourgeoise is composed of minced or pounded veal in a rich white sauce, covered with a savoury meringue and browned; dressed in a soufflé dish. This preparation of veal may be served cold, as Petites gelées-set in little moulds of aspic, and garnished with a vegetable salad.
Petits pâtés à la Bourgeoise are small patties filled with veal forcemeat.
Petits pâtés à la Turque are rice patties filled with minced veal in white sauce with currants on sultanas.
Gâteau de riz à la Ménagère is a mould of rice with a preparation of minced or pounded veal in the centre.
Pain à la Française consists of layers of slices of veal, bacon and calf's liver in a mould of aspic.
Calf's head for an entrée is boned, boiled, and cut in pieces. It is dressed as- Tête de veau à la Sainte-Ménenould--the pieces coated with a sauce of butter and flour, breadcrumbed, sprinkled with melted butter, and browned.
Tête de veau en moule-minced, and baked in a mould in alternate layers with chopped ham. à la Financière-served with Financière garnish.
Turban de tête de veau à la Maître d'hôtel-the pieces dressed in a crown, and served with Maître d'hôtel sauce. à la Hollandaise-served with Dutch sauce; à la poulette-in white sauce with mushrooms, onions, and yolks of eggs.
Calves' Brains are dressed as- Cervelles de veau à la Provençale-cooked in stock with wine, oil, parsley, garlic, etc., and served in the sauce. à la Ravigote-boiled, cut in slices, and arranged in a circle, with Ravigote sauce. en caisses au gratin. Small slices with a white sauce, baked in paper cases, with breadcrumbs on the top. This preparation may be served in little cases of pastry or fried bread, as Petites croustades de cervelles.
Croquettes de cervelles-made into croquettes with breadcrumbs, milk, eggs, etc., breadcrumbed and fried.
Fritot de cervelles. Fritters made of pieces of the brains soaked in vinegar, dipped in batter, and fried.
They are also served with Matelote, black butter, or other sauce, and take their name from it. ENTRÉES.
Calves' Ears dressed as- Oreilles de veau aux champignons are boiled, and served in a brown sauce with yolks of eggs and mushrooms. farcies-stuffed with forcemeat, breadcrumbed and fried; served with gravy. en marinade-cut in strips, steeped in vinegar, etc., dipped in batter and fried; served with tomato sauce.
Calf's Tongue as- Langue de veau sauce tomates is larded, stewed, cut in two, and served in tomato sauce. à la jardinière-stewed in white stock, cut in oval slices, glazed, and served with a Jardinière garnish. It is also served with Mushroom, Ravigote, or Piquante sauce.
The Liver is dressed as- Foie de veau à l'Italienne. Slices cooked with oil, wine, bacon, mushrooms, etc., and served in the sauce. au lard, or à l'Anglaise. Slices sauté, and served with slices of bacon.
Cooked with bacon and a few vegetables and herbs, pounded and passed through a sieve, it is used as a substitute for foie gras. It may be dressed in croustades, bouchées, and a variety of ways. Pain de foie de veau is a steamed mould of liver forcemeat served with thin brown sauce.
Calf's Kidney is served as- Rognon de veau sauté-minced, and sauté with butter, wine, brown sauce, etc.
Rognon de veau en ragoût à la Nivernaise-stewed and served with carrots and turnips cut in small shapes. à la Turque-stewed with rice. à la Tuileries-minced with bacon, and served in a parsley sauce, with a border of purée of mushrooms, garnished with potato straws. en caisses. Small round slices in brown sauce with chopped shallots, mushrooms, etc., baked in paper cases, the tops sprinkled with breadcrumbs. Calves' Feet may be boiled, and dressed in tomato, poulette, or other sauce; the dish is called- Pieds de veau aux tomates, or according to the sauce. à la Tartare are breadcrumbed and broiled, and served in Tartare sauce. à la bourgeoise are stewed with bacon, veal, carrots, onions, etc., and served in the sauce, with the vegetables and meats.
For Pieds de veau en friture or en marinade small pieces are steeped in vinegar and water, dipped in batter, and fried.
Calf's Tail, cut in pieces and boiled, is served as- Queue de veau à la Ravigote-in Ravigote sauce; or à la poulette-in white sauce with onions and mushrooms.
This page works through a calf: the flesh pounded into creams and quenelles, then the head, the brains, the ears, the tongue and the liver, each with three or four names. It is a page about using every part of an animal, written for a kitchen with hands to spare.
- “Bourgeoise” is a garnish, not a social registerOn this page à la Bourgeoise means served with mixed vegetables, nothing more. The adjectives throughout — Jardinière, Financière, Toulouse, poulette — are codes for a particular garnish or sauce, and none of them describes the meat.
- Crème de veau is a mousselineVeal pounded with cream and egg, then steamed in a mould. The book assumes a mortar, a drum sieve and an afternoon. A food processor and a fine sieve get you there in twenty minutes, and the same mixture poached in spoonfuls is a quenelle.
- Calf’s head is a special orderThe head gave this kitchen meat and, just as important, the gelatine that lets the dishes hold a shape, which is why boned and boiled head reappears coated, moulded, crowned and sauced. No ordinary counter stocks it. A butcher who breaks whole carcasses can usually get one with notice.
- Lining a mould “ornamentally”Cut vegetables or chopped truffle are pressed against the buttered inside of the mould before the forcemeat goes in, so the pattern appears on the surface when it is turned out. It is the technique the whole page leans on and the reason these dishes took so long to produce.
- Two slips in the printing“Currants on sultanas” should read currants or sultanas, and à la Sainte-Ménenould is a setting of Sainte-Menéhould. The Foie de veau à l’Italienne entry breaks off mid-word where the page ends.
The interest of this page is the labour standing behind it. One calf arrives and the kitchen produces veal creams, quenelles, patties, a rice mould, a loaf set in aspic, the head four ways, the ears three, the tongue three. Each of those means pounding, sieving, lining a mould, poaching, glazing. A household that could put Oreilles de veau farcies on a dinner card had a trained cook and people working under her, and the thrift on display, with nothing of the animal thrown out, was possible only because labour cost less than meat did.