No. 1523

Small Kernels or Nuts with Macedoine

Noisettes de Veau a la Macedoine

Small Kernels.-A small gland enveloped in fat, found in the shoulder of veal near the joint of the two large bones, on the left of the plate bone. This kernel is the size of an ordinary walnut, and is considered a tidbit morsel. Procure sixteen of these kernels, soak them on the corner of the range for two hours, without boiling, then parboil, refresh and drain well; lay them under a weight, pare them oval-shaped, and put them into a sautoir lined with slices of fat pork and moistened with a mire-poix stock (No. 419) made with either white wine or Madeira; let cook for three-quarters of an hour; a quarter of an hour before serving, drain off, strain and skim the stock; pour it back over the kernels and reduce the whole to a half-glaze; dress in a circle, filling the center with a macedoine of vegetables (No. 680); pour the half-glaze over the kernels and serve.

← No. 1522 Kernel of Veal with half-Glaze Veal No. 1524 Veal Kidneys a l'Anderson →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Ranhofer's method is sound, but the cut he calls for effectively no longer exists in retail butchery, and one instruction in the first line runs against modern food handling. Read those two points before anything else.

The kernel itselfWhat Ranhofer describes — a small gland in fat near the shoulder joint — is almost certainly a lymphatic gland, and in modern practice such glands are routinely trimmed out during dressing and inspection rather than sold. You are very unlikely to find sixteen of them at retail. The nearest thing in spirit is veal sweetbread (thymus), which behaves similarly under soaking, parboiling and pressing; the nearest thing in shape and cooking time is a set of small medallions cut from the loin or tenderloin, though these want far less than forty-five minutes.
The two-hour soak"Soak them on the corner of the range for two hours, without boiling" means degorging in barely warm water to draw out blood. Holding raw meat at warm-but-not-simmering temperatures for two hours can sit squarely in the bacterial growth range. Soak in cold water in the refrigerator, changing the water two or three times, and you get the same pale result.
Refresh, and the weight"Refresh" is to plunge the parboiled pieces straight into cold water to stop the cooking and firm them. Pressing under a light weight for an hour or two, chilled, flattens them evenly so they can be pared to a neat oval and cook at the same rate — the same treatment classically given to sweetbreads.
Sautoir and fat porkA sautoir is a straight-sided shallow pan with a lid; a wide saute pan or braiser does the job. The slices of fat pork are a barding layer to keep the lean meat from catching and to enrich the braising liquid — unsmoked fatback or thinly sliced salt pork, blanched first if very salty.
Mirepoix stock (No. 419)Ranhofer's mirepoix stock is a cooking liquid, not a bed of vegetables: a fine dice of aromatic vegetables (carrot and onion, with ham or bacon) sweated in butter, moistened with white wine or Madeira and stock, with thyme and bay. Roughly two cups of well-flavoured veal or chicken stock with a half cup of Madeira and a fine dice of aromatics will stand in.
Half-glazeIn this instruction it means the braising liquid strained, skimmed and reduced until it coats a spoon and glosses the meat, rather than a separately made compound sauce (though Ranhofer does use "half-glaze" for demi-glace elsewhere in the book). Reduce it hard in a wide pan in the last ten minutes and spoon it over.
Macedoine (No. 680)A macedoine is vegetables cut to uniform small dice — carrot, turnip, green beans, peas, sometimes flageolets — each cooked separately to keep its colour, then bound with butter. Cut everything to the same size, about a quarter inch, or the dish loses its point.
YieldSixteen kernels the size of a walnut is a garnish course for eight, or a small main course for four. Scaled to loin medallions, allow three or four per person.

A Little History

This is No. 1523 from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium of the food he served over three decades as chef of Delmonico's in New York. The entry is a good illustration of what that kitchen could do that a home cook could not: it takes sixteen small glands, each trimmed from a separate veal shoulder, to plate a single course — an economy of scale available only to a restaurant butchering whole animals daily. The garnish takes its name from the Macedonian empire of Alexander, whose mixture of peoples is the traditional explanation for a dish of many small diced vegetables; the usage was well established in French cookery long before Ranhofer adopted it. Noisette, literally hazelnut, is the standard French term for any small rounded portion of meat, and Ranhofer's English gloss of "kernel" preserves the same idea of a nut-sized morsel.