No. 1516

Calf's Head a la Poulette

Tete de Veau a la Poulette

Prepare and cook the calf's head as for the plain (No. 1519); when cold select the cheek pieces and snout free of all fat, and cut them up into one and three-quarter inch squares; put these in a sautoir with some veloute sauce (No. 415), heat it up slowly and thicken just when ready to serve with egg-yolks and butter, seasoning with salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon juice and fine herbs. Serve very hot.

← No. 1515 Calf's Head a la Renaissance Veal No. 1517 Calf's Head in Tortue →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional brigade with a larder full of cross-referenced preparations, so this entry is really the last five minutes of a much longer job. Two other recipes are folded into it by number.

The hinge: never let the sauce boil after the yolks go inOnce the egg yolks and butter are stirred in, the sauce must stay below about 180F or the yolks curdle and the dish breaks. Pull the sautoir off the heat, add the liaison, and return it only briefly to a very low flame.
What No. 1519 involvesThe "plain" calf's head is generally soaked in cold water, blanched, then simmered slowly in a blanc — water with flour, lemon and salt — until tender and left to cool in its liquid; the method and timing belong to No. 1519, not to this entry. What this recipe does require is that the head be cooked and fully cold before you begin.
Velouté (No. 415)A blond roux moistened with white veal stock and simmered down, not a milk-based bechamel. Ranhofer gives no quantity here; use enough to coat the meat.
Sourcing the headA whole calf's head is a special order from a butcher and usually arrives split, skinned and with the brain and tongue removed. Ranhofer wants only the cheeks and snout here; the tongue, brains and remaining trim would be put to use elsewhere.
SautoirA wide, straight-sided shallow pan. Depth matters less than surface area — the squares of meat should sit in one layer so they heat through without being stirred to pieces.
Fine herbsFines herbes in this period means chopped parsley with chervil, tarragon and chives, added at the end so they stay green. Parsley and chives alone are an acceptable reduction.
Seasoning orderRanhofer lists salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon juice and fine herbs together at the moment of thickening. Adding the lemon juice and herbs last, off the heat, keeps the herbs green and avoids acid meeting the yolks over direct flame.
Yield and serviceServe very hot, as the recipe insists, in a heated deep dish. Ranhofer gives no yield and names no accompaniment.

A Little History

A la poulette names a white sauce finished with egg yolks, butter and lemon — the same treatment given to mussels, sweetbreads and tripe. The name is usually explained by reference to the pale, chicken-like colour of the sauce rather than to any use of an actual pullet, though this reading is traditional rather than documented. Calf's head was common bourgeois and restaurant fare in nineteenth-century France, sold cooked and rolled by charcutiers and often eaten plain with a sharp vinaigrette; poulette is the gentler treatment, and Charles Ranhofer gives it here among a run of tete de veau variations for Delmonico's in New York. That the book carries several recipes for one head reflects a kitchen economy in which a single delivery from the butcher was put to more than one use: cheeks to the poulette, tongue and brains elsewhere.