No. 1530

Calf's Liver a la Clermont

Foie de Veau a la Clermont

Cut up finely one pound of white onions and fry in butter to have them a nice golden color. Drain this off, and moisten the onions with sufficient stock (No. 194a) to allow them to swim; set it on a slow fire to cook and fall to a glaze, moisten with one and a half pints of espagnole (No. 414), reduce to half. Cut slices from a calf's liver three-eighths of an inch in thickness; pare each one the shape of a large chicken fillet, and lay them in a sautéing pan with clarified butter, season with salt and pepper, and fry on both sides till they are firm to the touch, then drain off the butter and add the above Clermont, finishing with chopped parsley. Remove at the first boil, dress the liver and pour the Clermont over.

← No. 1529 Calf's Light a la Mariniere Veal No. 1531 Calf's Liver and Bacon →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stock and sauce already on the stove; the whole dish is two components, an onion base and quickly seared liver, brought together at the last moment.

The hinge: do not cook the liver twiceThe liver is fried until just firm, then the sauce is added and the pan pulled at the first boil. Calf's liver held in simmering sauce turns grainy and grey within a couple of minutes; the sauce should be hot and finished before it ever meets the meat.
EspagnoleOne and a half pints of espagnole reduced by half is roughly 350 ml of finished sauce. A good commercial or homemade demi-glace, loosened with a little stock, stands in for it without apology; the onions supply most of the character.
Stock No. 194aRanhofer's cross-reference is to one of his basic broths; a plain unsalted white veal or chicken stock is a reasonable stand-in. Use unsalted stock, since it is reduced to a glaze and any salt in it concentrates.
"Fall to a glaze"Cook the onions in the stock uncovered until the liquid has almost entirely gone and the pan is sticky and lightly caramelised, around 20-30 minutes on low heat. This is where the sweetness comes from; rushing it leaves the sauce thin and sharp.
Slice thicknessThree-eighths of an inch is just under 1 cm. Thicker slices cannot be cooked through in the short sear the method allows, and thinner ones overcook before they colour.
Paring to shape"the shape of a large chicken fillet" refers to trimming each slice to an even, rounded shape. In practice that also means taking off the tough outer membrane and any visible ducts, though the recipe does not say so; leaving the membrane on makes the slices curl in the pan.
Clarified butterUsed because whole butter burns at the heat needed to colour liver quickly. Clarified butter, ghee or a neutral oil with a knob of butter added at the end all work.
YieldRanhofer gives no yield or weight of liver for this dish. One pound of onions and this quantity of sauce would suit something in the region of four to six portions, at perhaps two slices a person, but that is an estimate rather than the book's own figure.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of that house's repertoire, numbered recipe by recipe. In classical French garnish nomenclature à la Clermont denotes onions, usually stewed soft and bound with a brown sauce, and it appears across the period's manuals attached to liver, tournedos and braised meats alike; the name is generally traced to the Clermont family or the Auvergnat town rather than to any single cook. That a dish as plain as liver and onions arrives here with a stock reduction, an espagnole and a Latin-lettered cross-reference says a good deal about the restaurant: nothing left the Delmonico's kitchen as a plain thing, and the offal dishes sit in the veal chapter alongside sweetbreads and calf's lights as ordinary items of a nineteenth-century menu rather than curiosities.