Sweetbreads au Monarch

A composed presentation piece from Ranhofer's Delmonico kitchen: the sweetbread itself is cooked elsewhere in the book, and this entry is really an assembly diagram. Read it backwards — build the garnish and the quenelles first, because the sweetbreads must be served hot.

• The cross-references are the recipeNo. 1575 (larded and glazed) is where the actual cooking is described, and No. 492 is the book's Madeira sauce. In the classical method a sweetbread is soaked, blanched, trimmed of membrane and gristle, pressed until cold, then larded and braised; a Madeira sauce of this period is generally a reduced brown sauce finished with Madeira. Check both entries in the book rather than relying on the summary. Without them this entry gives you nothing to cook.
• Soak and press, then decideSweetbreads may be either the thymus (throat) or the pancreas; the thymus is what is usually wanted here. As modern practice, soak 3-4 hours refrigerated, blanch 3-5 minutes, and press cold for at least an hour. Pressing is what makes them slice cleanly and hold the weight of a quenelle and a crawfish.
• LardingLarding with strips of salt pork through a larding needle compensates for meat that has no fat of its own. Without a needle, one substitute is to bard the sweetbread in thin sheets of fatback or caul, tying it for the braise.
• QuenellesA crown-shaped quenelle two inches across is piped or moulded veal or chicken forcemeat — pounded meat, panada, egg, cream — poached gently in barely simmering salted water or stock, never at a boil, or it breaks up. "Streaked with truffles" means thin truffle strips laid onto the surface before poaching so they set into it.
• SalpiconA salpicon is simply a mixture cut into uniform small dice. The recipe asks only that mushroom, artichoke bottom, truffle and foie gras be cut square and all to the same size; fold them into hot Madeira sauce off direct heat, since foie gras dice will melt to nothing in a boiling sauce.
• CrawfishThe text says only to set a crawfish on each quenelle; the intention is decorative, and period service of this kind normally used a whole cooked crayfish, shell on. Freshwater crayfish tails, or a large shell-on shrimp, stand in for the same visual effect. Cook them separately before assembling.
• CroustadesThe rounds of bread -- two and a half inches wide, a quarter inch thick, fried in butter as the recipe directs -- are structural, so fry them crisp on both sides and drain them well. A firm white loaf holds up better than soft fresh bread under sauce.
• Yield and serviceThe recipe dresses one sweetbread on each crouton, arranged in a circle, so the number of portions follows the number of sweetbreads you prepare. Everything must be assembled at the last minute on a warmed platter, with a sauceboat of the same Madeira sauce alongside.