No. 1668

Lamb's Crows, Ravigote Sauce

Fraises d'Agneau a la Sauce Ravigote

Select two very white and clean lamb's crows. Line an earthen crock with slices of fat pork, range the crows on top and add to them two medium onions one having four cloves in it, a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, salt and pepper; moisten with white wine and beef stock (No. 194a), cover the top with more slices of the pork, then place a deep plate over, filling it with water, and let cook slowly in a moderate oven for four hours, drain, and dress on a hot dish, surround the crows with sprigs of parsley and serve with ravigote sauce (No. 531).

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For the Modern Kitchen

A long, gentle braise of offal that reads oddly today mainly because the main ingredient has all but vanished from retail butchery. Nothing here is difficult once you know what you are buying and how slow "slowly" means.

What a lamb's crow isFraise d'agneau is the mesentery — the frilly, fat-laced membrane that suspends the intestines. It is sold, if at all, by whole-carcass butchers and halal or Greek shops, usually on special order, and rarely at a supermarket. Two crows means two animals' worth, and even then it is a modest amount of meat — a first-course dish rather than a main.
"Very white and clean" is the whole jobThe instruction is doing a lot of work. Mesentery needs long rinsing in several changes of cold water, then a blanch from cold water brought to a boil and drained, before it goes near the crock. Any residual gut content or greenish tinge means it was not cleaned at the abattoir and should be rejected rather than scrubbed.
Fat porkMost likely fresh fatback or salt pork; the book does not specify, and it is certainly not smoked bacon, whose smoke would dominate a delicate offal braise. If you use salt pork, blanch it first to pull the cure back.
The crock and the water-filled plateAn earthen crock is an earthenware braising pot; a stoneware or enamelled cast-iron braiser stands in. The recipe gives no lid: the deep plate filled with water is the cover, and the water most likely acts as a condenser and weight, keeping the plate cool so steam returns to the pot and holding the floating crows under the liquid. A tight lid plus a cartouche of parchment does much the same; top up the plate if you use one, since it will evaporate over four hours.
Oven temperatureThe book gives no temperatures; 'moderate oven' is conventionally read as somewhere around 325–350F. For a four-hour covered braise the lower end, 300–325F, is nearer the intent and will not reduce the liquid to nothing. The pot should barely tremble, never simmer briskly.
The stock and wineNo. 194a is Ranhofer's plain beef stock; a good unsalted beef or veal stock works. Use enough of a dry white wine and stock, roughly equal parts, to cover the crows completely — the recipe says moisten, but this cut dries and toughens if any part sits above the liquid.
Ravigote sauceNo. 531 is Ranhofer's ravigote; in the classical repertoire the hot version is a velouté finished with ravigote butter and chopped herbs and sharpened with vinegar, which is what a braise like this implies. A modern cook can substitute a light herb velouté or, for a cold service, the vinaigrette-style ravigote with capers, shallot and chervil. Either way the acidity is the point, cutting the richness of the fat.
ServingDrain thoroughly and blot before dressing, or the braising fat will slick the plate and thin the sauce. Serve hot on a warmed dish; this is a preparation that turns unpleasantly greasy as it cools.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, where a French classical repertoire was cooked more or less complete, offal included. Fraise — the same word used for the ruff collar of the sixteenth century, a sense often traced to the frilled appearance of the membrane — was a standard Parisian item, most often served de veau and dressed with a sharp sauce; ravigote, from ravigoter, to revive or perk up, was the conventional partner for pale, rich, mild-flavoured offal such as calf's head, feet and tripe. The dish belongs to a period when a butcher's whole animal was expected to reach the table and a hotel kitchen had cooks and hours to spare on a four-hour braise of a nearly meatless cut. Mesentery survives in a few regional traditions, but in Anglo-American kitchens it disappeared with the decline of neighbourhood slaughtering, which is why the recipe now reads as a curiosity rather than a house staple.