No. 1568

Sweetbreads a la Theodora

Ris de Veau a la Theodora

The sweetbreads are to be prepared and cooked exactly the same as for Montebello (No. 1560); put them under a weight in round rings. Fry a shallot in butter, add to it some fresh mushrooms, unsmoked beef tongue, truffles, fine herb,s all finely chopped, and a little meat glaze (No. 402). Butter some silver cases, fill them half full with this preparation, lay the sweetbreads on top and set them in a slow oven to cook for fifteen to twenty minutes; when ready to serve put on each one a half spherical quenelle decorated with truffles, over this a Spanish olive stuffed with quenelle forcemeat (No. 89), and on top of all a whole pistachio nut stuck in the forcemeat, Serve separately a champagne sauce (No. 445) reduced with the stock the sweetbreads have been braised in.

← No. 1567 Sweetbreads a la St. Laurent Veal No. 1569 Sweetbreads au Chancelier →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a composed garnish dish from Ranhofer's cross-referenced system: the sweetbread itself is cooked by another entry, and four more numbers hide the sauce, the glaze and the forcemeat. Read it as an assembly plan rather than a standalone recipe.

The hinge: pressingSweetbreads are normally soaked in cold water until they run clear, blanched and trimmed of membrane and fat before cooking; here they are cooked as for Montebello (No. 1560) and only then put under a weight in round rings. The pressing is what gives the flat, even discs that will sit level in the cases.
What you still have to look upNo. 1560 (Montebello) supplies the cooking method and the braising stock, No. 402 the meat glaze, No. 445 the champagne sauce and No. 89 the quenelle forcemeat. Nothing here works without them: glaze is stock reduced to a syrup, and quenelle forcemeat of this period is generally a pounded meat or poultry mixture bound with panada, egg and cream -- but No. 89 has to be consulted for the actual formula.
Silver casesSmall individual silver dishes sent to table (the book's "cases"). Buttered ovenproof ramekins or small gratin dishes will do the same work.
Slow ovenRoughly 300-325F. The filling is already cooked and the sweetbreads are braised, so the fifteen to twenty minutes only heats through and marries the flavours.
Unsmoked beef tongueCooked, brined-but-unsmoked tongue, which delicatessens sell as pickled tongue. It is there for colour and firm texture in the mince; cooked ham is the nearest substitute, though it shifts the flavour.
Fine herbsFines herbes: chervil, chives, tarragon and parsley, chopped fine. In a hot mushroom duxelles they go in at the end.
Truffles and the towerThe half-spherical quenelle is forcemeat poached in a small round mould or spoon, studded with truffle cut-outs. Stuffed olive on top, pistachio spiked into the forcemeat to hold the stack. It is decorative, not structural, and can be simplified without harming the dish.
YieldThe recipe specifies no quantities. Reckon on one case per person and one pressed sweetbread lobe each, which puts a pair of veal sweetbreads at two to three servings.
SourcingOrder veal sweetbreads from a butcher ahead of time (the term covers both the thymus of the throat and the pancreas, the heart sweetbread), and use them within a day. They should be pale and firm, and are cooked through by the braise rather than served pink.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the house style exactly: a luxury offal cut, pressed into a neat disc, set on a mushroom-and-truffle mince and crowned with a stack of garnish that has to be built by hand for every guest. Names like a la Theodora, a la Montebello and au Chancelier were largely dedications and inventions of the kitchen rather than regional dishes, a way of distinguishing a dozen near-identical sweetbread preparations on a long menu; the Theodora in question is not identified in the book. Sweetbreads were expensive but unremarkable in nineteenth-century American restaurant cooking, appearing constantly as an entree between fish and roast, and the champagne sauce finished with the braising stock is standard classical practice: the cooking liquid never leaves the plate.