No. 1548

Spinal Marrow of Veal a la Barnave

Amourettes de Veau a la Barnave

The spinal marrow is the marrow taken from the vertebral column of the calf and with which very delicious dishes are prepared. Suppress the sinewy skin surrounding them and soak them for three hours in cold water, changing it every hour, cut them up into two inch lengths and lay them in a saucepan with some water, adding vinegar, salt, thyme, pepper corns and bay leaf. Put this on the fire and let boil for three minutes. When cold, drain and marinate the marrow in oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, dip each separate piece into a fine light frying batter (No. 137), plunge them into very hot fat, drain, salt and dress on folded napkins garnishing the top with a bunch of fried parsley. Serve a Barnave sauce (No. 431) separately. Spinal marrow prepared as above may also be served with black butter (No. 565) or hazelnut butter (No. 567).

← No. 1547 Slice of Round of Veal with Gravy Veal No. 1549 Spinal Marrow of Veal a la Villeroi →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Ranhofer's amourettes are bovine spinal cord, an ingredient that has since been removed from the food chain in most of the world. The notes below explain the terminology and why the dish belongs to reading rather than cooking.

What amourettes areNot marrow from the leg bones but the spinal cord itself, lifted out of the split vertebral column. French butchery has long distinguished amourettes (cord) from moelle (bone marrow); the two are not interchangeable, and the recipe's soaking and blanching are aimed at the cord's membrane and blood vessels.
Why this cannot be made todayWhy this is restricted today -- Bovine spinal cord is classed as specified risk material because of BSE and its link to variant CJD. In the EU the cord is excluded from food in cattle above 12 months and the vertebral column above 30 months; in the United States spinal cord from cattle 30 months and over is prohibited, and abattoirs remove and destroy it. Veal falls below those age thresholds, so amourettes de veau are still sold in some markets, notably in France; but supply outside them is scarce, and material of unverified age and origin should not be eaten.
The three-minute boil is not a safeguardThe prion agent behind BSE is not destroyed by ordinary cooking, marinating in acid, or deep frying. Nothing in this procedure reduces the risk, which is why regulation removes the tissue at slaughter rather than relying on the kitchen.
If you want the dish's textureUse a current, regulated recipe for a soft fried offal fritter from an approved cut. We are not offering a substitution scheme for this one.
The cross-referencesNo. 137 is Ranhofer's light frying batter, No. 431 the Barnave sauce, No. 565 black butter and No. 567 hazelnut (beurre noisette) butter. All four appear elsewhere in The Epicurean and are perfectly usable with other fried foods; the batter and the browned butters in particular carry over to vegetables, brains' modern replacements, or firm white fish.
Service style"Dress on folded napkins" is the period way of saying a linen-lined platter to absorb frying fat, with fried parsley heaped on top. This recipe sends the sauce to table separately, which keeps the batter from softening.

A Little History

Amourettes had a settled place in nineteenth-century French cookery, sold at the butcher alongside brains, sweetbreads and palate, and treated much the same way: soaked, blanched in acidulated water, then fried, sauced or set in a vol-au-vent. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, included several preparations of them in The Epicurean (1894) because his kitchen worked in the full classical repertoire. The origin of the garnish name is not documented; it is sometimes connected to Antoine Barnave, the Revolutionary orator, part of a long habit of attaching political and literary names to sauces and garnishes rather than describing them. The dish reads now as a marker of how far BSE altered European and American butchery in the 1990s: tissue that was ordinary market fare was largely legislated out of the food chain within a few years, and beef amourettes in particular survive mainly on the page.