No. 1502

Veal Cutlets, Milanese

Cotelettes de Veau Milanaise

Have six pared veal cutlets; dip them in clarified butter, then in breadcrumbs and immerse them in strained and beaten eggs; then again in breadcrumbs mixed with half the quantity of grated parmesan, and smooth this second breading carefully with the blade of a knife so as to have it level and even. Twenty minutes before serving put into a sauteing-pan sufficiently large to contain the cutlets without squeezing them, enough clarified butter to allow them, to swim; fry them to a fine golden color, being careful to turn them over once only, then drain, ornament with a paper frill (No. 10) and dress; pour around a tomato sauce (No. 549) mixed with half-glaze sauce (No. 413), and surround with tomato or macaroni Milanaise timbales (No. 2988).

← No. 1501 Veal Cutlets, Maitre d'Hotel Veal No. 1503 Veal Cutlets Studded with Truffles →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stocks and sauces already made, so most of the work here is in the breading and the fat. Two things decide the dish: an even second coat, and butter hot enough to set it on contact.

"Pared" cutletsTrimmed of fat and membrane, with the bone scraped clean; the paper frill in the recipe implies a bone-in rib chop. Ranhofer gives no weight or thickness, but chops of roughly 5-6 oz, evened out to about 3/8 inch, are a reasonable modern reading; boneless loin cutlets work if you skip the frill.
The breading orderButter, crumbs, egg, then crumbs mixed with half their quantity of grated Parmesan. The first butter-and-crumb layer helps keep the egg off the meat, and the knife-smoothing gives the flat, unbroken crust Ranhofer asks for; the Parmesan in the second coat is what makes the dish Milanaise. A rest of 15-20 minutes before frying (not called for in the original) helps the crust set.
"Enough to swim"Ranhofer wants enough clarified butter for the cutlets to float, so rather more than a shallow film, though still short of deep frying. Clarified butter matters at this depth; whole butter will burn and speckle the crust. Work at a moderate frying heat, hot enough to set the coating on contact without browning it before the meat cooks.
Turn over once onlyEvery turn cracks the Parmesan crust and lets butter under it. Three to four minutes a side for a 3/8-inch cutlet, until deep gold; the veal should reach about 145F.
Twenty minutes before servingThe instruction is scheduling, not cooking time. Ranhofer is telling the cook when to start relative to the course going out; the actual frying is under ten minutes.
The saucesNo. 549 is a tomato sauce and No. 413 a demi-glace; a half-and-half mix of good tomato sauce and a reduced brown veal stock gets you there. Pour it around the cutlets, never over, or the crust softens immediately.
GarnishRanhofer offers a choice of tomato or macaroni Milanaise timbales (No. 2988), a moulded pasta garnish of the Milanaise type; the cross-reference is not reproduced here. A plain buttered spaghetti or macaroni tossed with tomato and Parmesan is the same idea, and closer to what most people now expect beside a Milanese.
YieldSix cutlets, six servings as a main course.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and its French-Italian dishes come by way of the classical Paris repertoire rather than directly from Italy. In that repertoire à la milanaise is a fixed formula: grated Parmesan worked into the breadcrumbs, and a garnish of macaroni or noodles with tomato and often tongue, mushroom and truffle. The Milanese original, cotoletta alla milanese, is a veal rib chop breaded and fried in butter without cheese and served plain with lemon; its relationship to the Viennese schnitzel is one of the oldest unsettled arguments in European cooking, with each city traditionally claimed as the source. What Ranhofer preserves is the French reading of the dish, in which the cheese in the crust and the tomato-and-pasta garnish are what make the name, and the paper frill on the bone marks it as service food for a dining room rather than a home table.