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Epigrammes of Lamb with Macedoine
Tie two breasts of lamb together and boil them in a stock-pot for forty-five minutes. Drain well, then take out the bones, and place a heavy weight on it. When quite cold, cut each breast into three heart shaped pieces, dip them in oil or fat, add one tablespoonful of pepper, roll in breadcrumbs, and broil over a slow fire for four minutes each side. Take six broiled breaded lamb chops, prepare, and cook exactly the same, and serve with half pint of hot macedoine or any other garnishing that may be liked; arrange the breasts and chops on the garnishing,
An épigramme is a two-part plate: cooked, pressed, breaded lamb breast alongside a plain breaded chop. Oscar's text assumes you know the classical method, so a few gaps need filling.
- The hinge: press it coldThe breast must be boned while hot, then weighted and chilled until firm — a board with a few cans on top, at least four hours and preferably overnight. Without that step it will not cut into clean heart shapes and will fall apart on the grill.
- Forty-five minutes is not enoughLamb breast is fatty, sinewy meat. Simmer it in stock for 1½ to 2 hours, until a skewer slides through and the bones pull free with no resistance. Boil it hard and the fat renders out while the connective tissue stays tight.
- That tablespoon of pepperAlmost certainly seasoning for the crumbs and oil rather than a dose for the meat, and even then it is heavy-handed by current taste. A teaspoon of black pepper with salt in the crumbs is closer to what the plate wants.
- "Broil over a slow fire"A moderate grill or charcoal bed settled past its flames — roughly medium heat. The pressed breast is already cooked, so four minutes a side is only to crisp the crumb; watch it, since breadcrumbs over lamb fat catch quickly. A hot pan with a little clarified butter does the same job more predictably.
- The chops are raw"Cook exactly the same" means dip, crumb and broil, not boil first. Six trimmed rib chops breaded and given four minutes a side over medium heat come out about medium; use a thermometer for 130–135°F if you want them pink.
- MacédoineMacédoine -- A dice of mixed vegetables — traditionally carrot, turnip, green beans and peas, all cut to pea size — cooked separately and bound with butter or a little cream. The word also covers a mixed fruit preparation, but that is a separate sense and not what is meant here.
- Half a pintOne cup of the finished garnish, spooned onto the plate with the meat arranged over it. As written the dish serves six, one epigramme and one chop each.
The name comes from an old and probably apocryphal French joke, told in various forms through the nineteenth century, in which a hostess mishears a compliment about a witty épigramme and orders her cook to produce a dish by that name. Whatever the origin, by Escoffier's day épigrammes d'agneau was fixed in the professional repertoire and meant exactly what Oscar describes: the cheap, gelatinous breast cooked long, boned, pressed, crumbed and grilled, then served beside the expensive cutlet so that a single plate offers two textures from the same animal. It is a good example of what the Waldorf kitchen was doing in the 1890s — reproducing Parisian restaurant classics for American diners, including the thrifty ones, since the breast was among the least costly cuts on the carcass and the dish let a kitchen stretch a small number of chops across a table.