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Entrées: Sweetbreads
Lambs' Sweetbreads are dressed as- Ris d'agneau à la Munich-larded and braised; served with rice, and cocoanut sauce. à l'aspic-set in little moulds of aspic, garnished with truffle, etc. aux huîtres-dressed with oysters in a white sauce. à la jardinière-larded, braised and glazed; served with a Jardinière garnish.
Dressed in this way they are served aux petits pois, aux concombres, aux pointes d'asperges, etc., with dressed peas, cucumber, asparagus or other vegetable in the centre, instead of Jardinière garnish.
Casserole de riz aux ris d'agneau. Sweetbreads and cocks' combs with Allemande sauce, in a baked shape of rice.
They may also be dressed in many of the ways suggested for ris de veau.
PORK.
Pork Cutlets are sauté, broiled, or breadcrumbed and fried. They are served with Robert, Tomato, Ravigote, Piquante, Indienne, or Rémoulade sauce, and called Côtelettes de porc frais sauce tomates, or à la Robert, according to the sauce with which they are served. Aux coings, they are served with a compote of quinces.
Côtelettes de porc à la Bolognaise are breadcrumbed, with grated Parmesan mixed with the crumbs, and fried; served with brown sauce, and a garnish in the centre of short pieces of macaroni, mushrooms and tongue, with tomato sauce and grated cheese. à l'Américaine are masked with a tomato sauce with aspic, and served on an aspic border with tomatoes in the centre. aux marrons are braised, and served with a purée of chestnuts in the centre, and brown sauce. If orange juice and shreds of orange peel are added to the sauce, they are called à la Dauphinoise. à la Navarraise are pickled and braised, and served with rice and tomato sauce.
ENTRÉES.
Filets de pore à la Maréchale are small fillets cut from the under part of the loin, breadcrumbed and broiled. à la Hanovérienne are larded, braised and glazed; dressed in a crown with white pickled cabbage in the centre, and brown sauce. They are aux épinards or aux pommes, with spinach or apple sauce in the centre instead of the cabbage. à la Maltaise are served in a savoury white sauce with orange juice, and chopped orange peel, mushrooms, and parsley.
Lambs’ sweetbreads for half a page, then pork. What the two halves have in common is that the dish is named by its sauce and its garnish rather than by anything that was done to the meat.
- The sauce is the dishPork cutlets are cooked exactly one way and then listed six times over: sauce tomates, à la Robert, Ravigote, Piquante, Indienne, Rémoulade. The page says so plainly, and it is the key to the whole chapter. Learn the sauces and the rest is one piece of meat.
- Larded, braised, glazedThis three-step treatment runs through nearly every other line. Glazing means brushing the braising liquor, reduced until it is sticky, back over the meat at the end. It takes no skill, only patience, and it is what makes these joints look like restaurant food.
- Lamb or vealThe page notes that lamb sweetbreads can be dressed in most of the ways given for ris de veau. The difference is size and nothing else, so the recipes are interchangeable as long as the cooking time is read off the piece in front of you rather than the clock.
- QuincesAux coings means a compote of quinces beside the pork. Quinces are hard, astringent and inedible raw, come to market for a few weeks in autumn only, and need long slow cooking with sugar before they turn pink and fragrant. Nothing else substitutes for them properly.
- Filets de porcThe small fillets cut from the under part of the loin are what a butcher now sells as pork tenderloin or fillet. The page treats them as something to crumb and broil in minutes, which is still the right instinct for a cut that dries out.
- JardinièreNot a free-form side dish. A jardinière garnish is a fixed arrangement of vegetables cut to matched shapes and cooked separately, set in the middle of the dish, and the page swaps it for peas, cucumbers or asparagus tips without changing anything else.
The quietly surprising thing here is the cocoanut sauce served with larded sweetbreads and rice, sitting between an aspic and an oyster dish as though it were unremarkable. Coconut turns up twice within a few lines, once as a sauce and once as a grated garnish, used as a savoury ingredient in an English dinner without a word of explanation. The page also shows how the chapter was meant to be used. These are not recipes but cross-references, telling the cook that one preparation can be sent to table under six names and that lamb will stand in for veal. A book organised this way is a book for a kitchen that already knows how to cook and needs to know what to call things.