No. 1666

Carbonade of Lamb a la Jardiniere

Carbonade d'Agneau a la Jardiniere

A carbonade or loin is the end of the rack (Fig.335), from where the cutlets begin as far down as where the tail begins. Chop off entirely the chine bone without detaching the minion fillet, remove the skin covering the large fillet over its entire outside surface, and lard the meat with medium lardons (No. 3, Fig. 52). Roll over the flap, tie it with six rounds of string, forming a knot at each round, and then lay the meat in a saucepan lined with slices of fat pork, veal, ham, cut up vegetables, a garnished bunch of parsley and allspice, salt it over lightly and wet it with a beef stock (No. 194a); let fall to a glaze, then remoisten to its height with white wine and stock; allow the boiling to continue for five minutes, then uncover the saucepan and place it in a moderate oven to finish cooking, being careful to baste it frequently with its own stock, having it finally assume a fine color, Glaze, untie, dress and strain and skim the liquid, reduce and serve it in a sauce-boat; garnish around the meat with a jardiniere garnishing (No. 677).

← No. 1665 Breast of Lamb with Veloute Tomato Sauce-Stu Lamb No. 1667 Carbonade of Lamb a la Rambuteau →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's cross-references assume you own the whole book, and his method assumes a butcher who will hand you an untrimmed rack. Here is what the instructions mean in a present-day kitchen.

The hinge: two-stage braiseThe point of "let fall to a glaze, then remoisten" is that the first liquid reduces to a sticky film that caramelizes on the meat and the vegetable bed, and that film is the flavor of the finished sauce. Rush it and you get boiled lamb in thin broth.
What a carbonade is hereNot the Flemish beer stew. Ranhofer means the loin end of the rack, running from where the cutlets begin down to where the tail begins, i.e. a bone-in lamb loin, perhaps 3-4 lb. Ask for it chine bone removed, tenderloin (his "minion fillet") left in place, flap attached so it can be rolled.
Oven temperatureRanhofer gives no temperatures; "a moderate oven" is conventionally read as somewhere around 325-350F. The dish starts on the stovetop, boils five minutes, then finishes uncovered in the oven so the top browns while the bottom braises.
Larding, and skipping itLardons here are strips of chilled fat pork threaded through the muscle with a larding needle to keep lean meat moist. Modern lamb loin is fatter, and laying thin sheets of fatback or unsmoked bacon over the top and tying them under the strings is a reasonable substitute, though not the same thing.
The braising bedThe sliced fat pork, veal, ham and cut-up vegetables (Ranhofer does not say which) are a flavor base, not a garnish; the cooking liquid is strained off them at the end.
Stock and liquid levelNo. 194a is a beef stock; any good unsalted beef stock works. "Remoisten to its height" means liquid coming up level with the meat, not covering it. Ranhofer does not specify the ratio of white wine to stock.
Cooking time and donenessFigure roughly 1 to 1 1/4 hours for a rolled 3-4 lb loin, basting frequently as directed. If you want the meat pink, pull it at 130-135F in the center and let it rest before untying.
The jardiniereRanhofer's jardiniere garnish (No. 677) is broadly vegetables such as carrots and turnips cut in small even shapes with green beans and peas, cooked separately in salted water and tossed in butter. Arrange in separate clumps around the meat rather than mixing them.
YieldProbably four to six as a main course, with the reduced strained sauce passed separately.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer wrote The Epicurean (1894) out of some thirty years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and the entry shows it: the recipe is really a set of instructions to a brigade, keyed by number to stocks and garnishes prepared elsewhere in the house. Carbonade is usually traced to Italian carbonata, meat cooked over coals, and by the nineteenth century French kitchens had stretched the word to cover a particular cut as much as a method, which is why Ranhofer has to open by defining it anatomically. A la jardiniere - "gardener's style" - is the classic French garnish of vegetables cut or turned to uniform shapes and finished separately in butter. The braise itself, started over a bed of pork, veal and ham and then finished uncovered so the surface glazes, is standard nineteenth-century brown braising, and near-identical variants appear through this section of the book, each distinguished mainly by what is arranged around the platter.