No. 1670

Lamb Cutlets a la Bussy

Cotelettes d'Agneau a la Bussy

Pare eight yearling lamb cutlets; season with salt, mask over with oil and broil quite rare on a brisk fire. Prepare beforehand a salpicon of truffles, sweetbreads and mushrooms all cut up into quarter inch pieces and mixed with a well reduced allemande sauce (No. 407); as soon as it becomes quite cold, add to it dice pieces of duck's liver cut the same size. Spread this salpicon on the chops all on the same side rounding it well on top; cover over with a cream forcemeat (No. 75), besprinkle with finely chopped truffles and pour over a little melted butter. Place the chops in a slack oven to heat the salpicon, trim the bone handles, dress the chops flat on a light bechamel and cream sauce (No. 411). Serve with some of the same sauce in a separate sauce-boat.

← No. 1669 Lamb Cutlets, Plain—Yearling Lamb No. 1671 Lamb Cutlets a la Catalane →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a Delmonico's assembly job: three separately prepared components stacked on a broiled cutlet. Everything but the final heating should be done in advance, and the sauces referred to by number are recipes elsewhere in Ranhofer's book.

The hinge: broil rareThe cutlets go back into the oven under the salpicon and forcemeat, so they will take a second dose of heat. If you broil them past rare on the first pass they will be grey and dry on the plate.
"Slack oven"Ranhofer gives no temperature; the term is conventionally read as a low oven, somewhere around 275-300F. The stated aim is only to heat the salpicon through, not to cook the lamb further, so keep the time short.
Yearling lamb cutletsMeat from a sheep around a year old, between spring lamb and mutton, larger and stronger-flavoured than the lamb usually sold today. Modern rib chops from a standard rack work; "pare" here means trimming and shaping the cutlet, with the bone handles trimmed separately after cooking as the recipe directs.
Allemande sauce (No. 407)A velouté enriched and thickened with an egg-yolk and cream liaison, finished with lemon. It must be reduced hard here so the salpicon sets firm when cold and does not slump off the chop.
Béchamel and cream sauce (No. 411)A light béchamel let down with cream, seasoned and strained. It is a plating sauce, poured onto the dish so the chops sit flat on it, not spooned over the forcemeat.
Cream forcemeat (No. 75)Ranhofer's cream forcemeats are pounded raw white meat or veal worked with cream, in the mousseline family. A modern food processor does in a minute what the original assumes of a mortar; keep everything ice cold or it will break.
SweetbreadsRanhofer assumes they are already soaked, blanched, trimmed of membrane and pressed before dicing. Buy veal sweetbreads, not lamb, and do that work the day before.
Duck's liverIn Ranhofer this normally means fattened liver, i.e. foie gras, added last and cold so the dice hold their shape. Ordinary duck liver is a much stronger substitute and will dominate the truffle.
YieldThe recipe specifies eight cutlets but gives no number of servings; two apiece would make a course for four. Make enough salpicon to mound on eight chops.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and this dish shows the house style exactly: a plain broiled chop turned into a set piece by burying it under truffle, sweetbread and foie gras. The technique is classic French garnishing of the Carême line — a salpicon is simply a mixture of ingredients cut to uniform small dice, bound with a reduced sauce so it can be moulded — and the layered forcemeat coating over a cooked cutlet might be compared to the logic of a côtelette en surprise. The name is traditionally read as a tribute to one of the several French houses of Bussy, but no documented origin for this particular à la Bussy is given in the book.