No. 113

Lemons; to Cut Them in Various Manners

Citrons Tailles de Differentes Manieres

First wash and wipe the lemons, then cut them lengthwise in four, to serve either with oysters or fried fish.

Channeled slices of lemon are made by cutting small notches on the lemon lengthways of the peel, then cutting the lemon in crosswise slices an eighth of an inch thick. These are used for garnishing broiled fish. Slices of lemon cut the same way without being channeled, are frequently served with tea.

Halved lemons are prepared by paring off the two ends and then make sixteen notches in the center, the third of the length of the lemon with the tip of a small knife; these gashes should be very regular; run the knife through as far as the center, having eight cuts to the right and eight to the left, this makes eight long triangles; detach the lemon in two parts (Fig. 60). These are used also for cold fish and hatelets or skewers (Fig. 61).

Shells of lemon can also be made, making two shells from one lemon. Cut from the center of the lemon, beginning at the stalk, as far as the middle of one side and from the other end of the lemon as far as the middle of the other side, about one half inch of the peel, without detaching it; cut across the lemon, keeping the ribbon of the peel intact, thus producing two identical pieces; these halved shells are used for garnishing fried fishes such as sole a la Colbert, etc.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A knife drill rather than a cooking recipe: five ways of cutting a lemon for the table, from Ranhofer's opening chapter of basic techniques. Everything here still works, and most of it goes faster with tools that did not exist in his kitchen.

The hinge: a very sharp, thin bladeEvery cut described depends on a clean incision through the peel and pith without crushing the segments. A flexible paring knife or a boning knife works; a coarse serrated blade is more likely to drag on the membranes and set the lemon weeping before it reaches the plate.
"Channeled" slicesThe lengthwise notches Ranhofer cuts with a knife tip are what a canelle knife (channel knife) does in one pass. Strip five or six grooves from stem to tip, then slice crosswise and each round comes out with a scalloped edge.
The halved lemon with sixteen notchesThis is the cut now generally called a Vandyke, and it is easier than the description makes it sound. Mark the midpoint all round with a fingernail first, then make eight angled cuts one way and eight the other, all meeting at the core, and the two halves pull apart cleanly.
Lemon shellsThe half-inch ribbon of peel left attached forms a handle over the cut half. Score both sides of the ribbon down to the flesh before cutting the lemon across, or the peel will tear where it meets the fruit.
Wax and coatingsSupermarket lemons are usually coated with food-grade wax and may be sprayed post-harvest. Ranhofer's first instruction to wash and wipe still stands; scrub under warm water, since garnish peel goes to the mouth and the plate.
Slice thicknessAn eighth of an inch is about 3 mm, thin enough to be flexible but thick enough to hold a channeled edge. Thinner rounds curl and go translucent within an hour under warm lights.
Holding cut lemonsCut faces dry and brown at the edges. Prepare no more than an hour ahead, keep the pieces covered with a damp cloth in the refrigerator, and pick out the pips before service rather than after.
YieldA medium lemon gives four wedges, two Vandyke halves, or two shells; sliced crosswise at an eighth of an inch, the middle of the fruit yields the full-width rounds worth serving. Figure one lemon per two covers for wedges.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer wrote The Epicurean (1894) out of some three decades running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and the elementary chapter it opens with is essentially a training manual for his own brigade: how to lard, how to make a marinade, how to cut a lemon so that eight tables get the same thing. The elaborate garnish cuts belong to the grand service of the period, when a fish course arrived on a platter to be portioned at the table and the lemon had to look worth carving. The Vandyke edge is named, traditionally, for the pointed collars and beards in Anthony van Dyck's portraits. Sole a la Colbert, which he cites for the shells, is a nineteenth-century French dish that reached New York with the French chefs; it is finished with maitre d'hotel butter.