No. 1503

Veal Cutlets Studded with Truffles

Cotelettes de Veau Cloutee aux Truffes

Pare six covered veal cutlets keeping the rib bones rather short, and the meats seven-eighths of an inch thick; stud them rosette-shaped all on the same side with pieces of truffles square on one end, and pointed on the other. Cover the bottom of a sautoir with scraps of fat pork, minced carrots and onions; on this range the cutlets, season, and moisten to their heighth with beef stock (No. 194a); set the saucepan on a brisk fire, reduce the liquid to half, cover the chops with buttered paper, and let cook with the lid on over a slow fire, or else in the oven, increasing the moistening at frequent intervals. At the very last moment allow them to glaze while uncovered, basting with their own stock; lift them out, pare them slightly, garnish the handles with paper frills (No. 10), and dress over a Madeira sauce (No. 492) reduced with essence of truffles (No. 395).

← No. 1502 Veal Cutlets, Milanese Veal No. 1504 Veal Cutlets with Fine Herbs →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes you have a brigade, a stockpot always going, and a jar of truffle essence on the shelf. The dish reduces to a straightforward braise of veal rib chops on a bed of aromatics; the studding and the sauce are what make it worth the trouble.

The hinge: stud before cooking, shallow and even"Clouté" means studded, here with truffle: cut the truffle into small wedges, square at the base and pointed at the tip, then make slits with the point of a paring knife and press each piece in so only the square end shows. Work them into a rosette pattern on one face only, as the recipe directs, and keep the slits shallow so the pieces do not work loose during the braise.
"Covered" cutletsA côtelette couverte is a rib chop from the part of the rack where the bone is still covered by meat, as distinct from the uncovered chops nearer the neck; in any case not a trimmed loin cutlet. Ask for six rib chops from the rack, cut a scant inch thick (seven-eighths is 22 mm), with the rib bone shortened as Ranhofer directs.
SautoirA straight-sided sauté pan wide enough to hold six chops in one layer without overlapping. A shallow braiser or a heavy skillet with a lid does the same work; the chops must sit flat on the vegetable bed.
"Moisten to their heighth"Add stock until it comes level with the tops of the chops, boil hard to reduce it by half, then lower the heat. This is a braise, not a poach, and the reduction is where the glaze comes from.
Oven temperatureRanhofer gives no temperature, only a "slow fire"; if you finish it in the oven, a slow oven of roughly 300-325F is a reasonable modern reading. The liquid should barely tremble, and the recipe asks you to increase the moistening at frequent intervals as it reduces.
TimingRanhofer gives no time. Bone-in veal rib chops of this thickness should be tender in something like 35 to 45 minutes at a bare simmer; check with a skewer and stop when it meets no resistance.
Fat porkFresh pork fatback or unsmoked salt pork, cut in scraps. If salted, blanch it two minutes first, or the reduced braising liquid will be too salty to glaze with.
Buttered paperA cartouche: a round of parchment cut to the pan's diameter, buttered on the side that touches the meat. It keeps the exposed surfaces from drying while the lid holds the steam.
The sauce and truffle essenceNo. 492 is Ranhofer's Madeira sauce, a half-glaze finished with Madeira; a good reduced veal stock with dry Madeira stands in. His "essence of truffles" (No. 395) is, in the usual form, truffle trimmings cooked down in Madeira -- easily improvised from the peelings of the truffle you studded with. Bottled truffle oil is a different, harsher thing and does not substitute cleanly.
Yield and serviceSix chops, one per person as a main course. The paper frills on the rib bones are period presentation and can be skipped; the sauce goes under the meat, not over it, so the truffle rosette stays visible.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for most of three decades, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertoire set down in numbered order, with its cross-references intact -- which is why this page sends you off to No. 194a for the stock and No. 492 for the sauce. The technique named in the title, clouté, is the same word used for studding a ham with cloves or an onion with cloves: piercing a surface and setting something into it. Studding meat with cut truffle was a standing gesture of French grande cuisine, generally traced to the nineteenth century, and it was as much visual as gustatory, since the black points read clearly against pale veal on a silver platter. Veal itself was a luxury meat in American cities of the period, associated with French cooking; a plate of six frilled rib chops, truffled and glazed, was the sort of thing Delmonico's sold to people who wanted to be seen eating it.