No. 1662

Breasts of Lamb, Baked

Poitrines d'Agneau au Gratin

Prepare and cook the breasts the same as for chopped sauce (No. 1663); put them under a weight or in the press (Fig. 71) and press to five-eighths of an inch thick, and when cold pare by removing the skin and part of the fat; cut into an oblong shape, then cover with a baking forcemeat (No. 81); lay on top of each three mushrooms, one large and two small ones; place them on a well-buttered baking dish, pour over an Italian sauce (No. 484), bestrew with bread raspings and besprinkle with butter, then brown in the oven; serve on the same dish and garnish the sides with round cuts of red beef tongue warmed in a little meat glaze (No. 402), with butter and lemon juice.

← No. 1661 Baron of Yearling Lamb a la de Rivas Lamb No. 1663 Breasts of Lamb, Chopped Sauce →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand, assuming you have the rest of The Epicurean at your elbow. Once the cross-references are unpacked this is a straightforward two-day dish: braise and press the breasts one day, coat and gratin them the next.

The hinge: press the breasts while hotLamb breast is a laminated, fatty cut that only slices cleanly if it is compressed while still warm and left to set cold. Bone it the moment it comes out of the braise, lay it flat between two trays with a few pounds of weight on top, and refrigerate overnight. Skipping this gives you a floppy, greasy piece that will not hold a forcemeat topping.
What No. 1663 meansThe companion recipe cooks the breasts in stock with aromatics until they are thoroughly tender. Cook to tenderness rather than to the clock; expect somewhere in the region of 1½ to 2 hours at a bare simmer for a 2 lb breast, with the bones sliding free as the test.
Baking forcemeat (No. 81)Ranhofer's baking forcemeat is a bound farce stiffened with a panada and egg; see No. 81 for his exact composition. Any firm, well-seasoned sausage-style stuffing of similar consistency will behave the same way: it should be spreadable but hold a shape, not slump under the sauce.
Italian sauce (No. 484)Not a tomato sauce in the modern sense. Sauce italienne is built on a duxelles of finely chopped mushroom and shallot cooked down in white wine with lean ham and finished with demi-glace; some versions carry a little tomato. A reduced brown sauce with a dry mushroom duxelles stirred through is the working equivalent.
Bread raspingsDried crumbs made by grating the hard outer crust of a stale loaf — coarser and drier than modern packaged crumbs, which is why they crisp rather than turn pasty under sauce. Grate the crust from a day-old baguette and dry it in a low oven if you want the right texture.
Oven for browningThe meat is already cooked, but the forcemeat topping is raw and has to cook through as the crust takes colour. Ranhofer gives no temperature; a hot oven in the region of 425–450F for 15–20 minutes, or a spell under the broiler at the end, gets the crust without drying the forcemeat.
Red beef tongueThe pink colour comes from brine curing, not from the meat itself. Buy a cooked cured tongue from a deli and cut it into rounds; fresh tongue is grey-brown and will not give the garnish its intended contrast.
Meat glaze (No. 402)Glace de viande: brown stock reduced until it is syrupy and sets to a rubbery block when cold. A teaspoon or two, melted with butter and a squeeze of lemon, is all the tongue rounds need.
YieldOne breast of lamb, boned and pared, cuts into two or three oblongs. Two breasts will serve four as a main course with the tongue garnish.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of his long service running the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and this recipe shows the restaurant logic behind the grandeur: breast is the cheapest part of the lamb, all fat and cartilage and thin muscle, and the classical repertoire spent enormous effort making it presentable. Braising, pressing, paring, masking with forcemeat and gratinating is the standard nineteenth-century treatment for the cut, and it persists in Escoffier after Ranhofer. The garnish of pink tongue rounds glossed with meat glaze is pure period plating: a band of contrasting colour laid around the dish, cut with a round cutter so every piece matches. Note too that the recipe is a chain of references to other numbered preparations, which is how a professional kitchen actually worked: the forcemeot, the Italian sauce and the glaze were all standing items made in bulk, not things assembled for one order.