No. 1589

Carbonade a la Juvigny

The piece from the end of the last chop to the beginning of the leg is called carbonade. The bones are first extracted from the loin and it is then pared on all its length and width and larded with medium lardons (No. 3, Fig. 52), season, roll and tie it up into an oblong square (Fig. 335). Line the bottom of a saucepan or braziere with slices of fat pork, slices of veal, carrots, onions, bay leaf and thyme; lay the carbonade over, set a heavy buttered paper on top and pour in a quart of stock (No. 194a); let simmer for two hours and a half. Fifteen minutes before serving time, glaze the carbonade letting it become a fine color, dress it and garnish around with small pear-shaped carrots cooked in broth (No. 194a), small blanched onions cooked the same, small turnip balls blanched and browned in the pan with a little sugar and finished cooking in broth, and celery knobs the size of a clove of garlic, blanched and cooked likewise in broth. All these vegetables should be only sufficiently moistened so that when they are done the liquid is reduced to a glaze; strain the meat stock, remove its fat and finish by reducing it to the consistency of a half-glaze and add Juvigny sauce (No. 485).

← No. 1588 Haricot of Breast of Mutton with Turnips Mutton No. 1590 Plain Mutton Cutlets and Mutton Chops →

For the Modern Kitchen

A braised, larded loin of mutton with a glazed root-vegetable garnish. The method is sound; most of what needs translating is butchery vocabulary and the assumption that you have a stockpot and a sauce list to hand.

The cutRanhofer defines carbonade here as the piece between the last chop and the leg -- in modern terms the loin end, boned out. A butcher will give you a boneless lamb loin or the sirloin end; the recipe gives no weight. Mutton (generally sheep over a year or two, depending on the trade definition) is now rare in the US and usually special-order; lamb works but will be done sooner.
LardingMedium lardons threaded through the meat with a larding needle keep a lean, long-cooked loin from drying. Chilled fatback or unsmoked salt pork cut into strips about 1/4 inch square is the right material. Without a larding needle, bard the outside with sheets of fatback under the string instead.
Fat pork and slices of vealThe pan lining is a flavour base and an insulator, not a serving component. Use unsmoked fatback or blanched salt pork and a piece of veal shin or breast; smoked bacon will dominate the sauce.
Heat and vesselA braziere is simply a heavy lidded braising pan. Rather than simmering on a burner for two and a half hours, braise at 325F, where the liquid barely trembles. The buttered paper sits directly on the meat as a cartouche to baste the exposed top.
A quart of stockThat is 4 cups, and it should come partway up the meat rather than cover it -- the point is braising, not boiling. Ranhofer's No. 194a is his general stock/broth (the recipe uses the number for 'broth' as well); unsalted chicken or veal stock stands in.
Glazing at the endUncover for the last fifteen minutes, raise the oven to about 425F, and baste repeatedly with the reduced cooking liquid until the surface takes on a lacquered brown. This is the step that separates the dish from a stew.
Celery knobsCeleriac, cut down to pieces the size of a garlic clove, blanched and then glazed in broth. Turnip balls are scooped with a small parisienne cutter, blanched, caramelised with a little sugar and butter, then finished in broth until the liquid becomes a glaze.
Juvigny sauceNo. 485 in the same book; the recipe does not say what it contains, only that it is added to the strained, degreased braising stock once that has been reduced to a half-glaze. If you do not have the cross-reference, degrease and reduce the braising stock to a light demi-glace consistency and serve that -- the recipe already tells you to do half the work.
YieldA boned loin of this size serves six to eight, carved in slices across the roll with the vegetable garnish arranged around the platter.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry is a good example of how much of that kitchen was straightforwardly French. Carbonade is generally traced to Italian carbonata by way of French, in the sense of meat grilled over coals; by the nineteenth century French usage had drifted, and Ranhofer applies it not to a cooking method at all but to a specific cut of the sheep, which he takes the trouble to define. The dish belongs to the older service where a large braised joint arrives glazed and ringed with separately cooked vegetables, each turned to a uniform shape -- pear-shaped carrots, turned turnip balls, celeriac cut to the size of a garlic clove. That labour was possible because a restaurant of Delmonico's rank employed a large brigade. Mutton, then common on both English and American tables and now largely displaced by lamb, was well suited to this treatment: older, leaner, stronger-flavoured meat rewards larding and long moist heat in a way that young lamb does not require.