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Broiled Venison Cutlets
Cut some cutlets off the breast of a doe, remove the chine bone and trim round the other end of the bone; beat the cutlets lightly, season them with salt and pepper and lay them on a deep dish, spread some chopped onions and parsley leaves over them, cover with good oil and allow them to macerate for two or three hours in a cool place. Drain the cutlets, place them on a gridiron and broil over a clear fire, turning them when done on one side and finishing the other. Make some piquant sauce and mix with it at least two tablespoonfuls of currant jelly. When the cutlets are nicely browned arrange them, overlapping each other, on a hot dish, pour the prepared sauce over them, and serve.
A short late-nineteenth-century hotel recipe that assumes a butcher, a live coal fire and a saucier standing by. The translation is mostly a matter of cuts, heat and restraint with the clock.
- The cut"Cutlets off the breast of a doe" means rib chops from the forward end of the rack, with a length of rib bone left on. Farmed venison rib chops or trimmed loin medallions are the practical substitute; ask for the chine (backbone) removed and the rib ends scraped clean, which is what "trim round the other end of the bone" describes.
- Do not cook it past medium-rareThis is the hinge. Venison carries almost no intramuscular fat, and a chop taken past about 130F internal turns dry and livery. On a hot grill that is roughly three minutes a side for a chop an inch thick, then a few minutes' rest.
- "A clear fire"Charcoal burned down past the flames to an even glow, with no smoke and no flare-up. A hot gas grill or a heavy ridged pan over high heat does the same work; the oil clinging to the meat will spit, so drain the cutlets properly as instructed.
- The macerationOnion, parsley and oil for two or three hours is a flavouring bath, not a preservative, and it will do little to tenderise. There is no acid in it, so it will not firm the surface; keep it refrigerated rather than in a nineteenth-century larder, and bring the chops to room temperature before they go on the fire.
- "Good oil"Most likely olive oil, though the recipe does not say. The instruction is to cover the cutlets; in practice about two-thirds of a cup will coat six chops in a deep dish if you turn them once or twice, without fully submerging them.
- Piquant sauceSauce piquante is a brown sauce finished with a reduction of vinegar, white wine and chopped shallot, with chopped gherkins and herbs stirred in at the end. A demi-glace or a reduced veal stock thickened lightly stands in; the two tablespoons of currant jelly go in off the heat so it melts without breaking the sauce.
- Salt timingThe original seasons before the oil bath. Salting several hours ahead works well on lean game, but skip any further salt until you have tasted the finished sauce, which is already sharp and sweet.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantity. Rib cutlets of this kind generally run two to three per person, so six chops, arranged overlapping on a hot platter as directed, would serve two or three.
Game was a fixture of grand American hotel dining when Oscar Tschirky's book appeared in 1896, and venison in particular signalled a kitchen with good market connections. Much of it still came from commercial hunters supplying urban markets, a trade that the Lacey Act of 1900 and a wave of state game laws curtailed, after which restaurant venison shifted toward imported and later farmed deer. The finish here is thoroughly classical: sharp brown sauce sweetened with currant jelly is a standard nineteenth-century French and English treatment for game, and the jelly is doing the same job the cook's sweet-sour reductions do for duck. A modern supplier of farmed venison will rarely distinguish doe from buck.