No. 1678

Lamb Cutlets a la Maintenon

Cotelettes d'Agneau a la Maintenon

Trim, pare and season twelve lamb cutlets; sauté them over a brisk fire, having them rare, then drain, wipe and cover both sides with a well-reduced soubise sauce (No. 543), into which some cooked fine herbs (No. 385) and chopped parsley have been added; when cold dip in beaten eggs, then roll in bread-crumbs and grated parmesan, smooth the surfaces with the blade of a knife and sauté them in clarified butter; dress each cutlet on a peeled, halved and pressed out tomato already fried in butter, and surround the whole with three-quarters of an inch in diameter balls of potatoes, blanched and fried in butter; a half-glaze sauce (No. 413) to be served in a sauce-boat.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A three-stage Escoffier-era preparation: sear, coat, crumb and re-fry. The cross-references to numbered sauces make it look harder than it is, but they do have to be made first.

The hinge: chill before breadingThe soubise coating must be set firm and the cutlets fully cold before they touch egg and crumbs, or the coating slides off in the pan. Thirty minutes to an hour on a tray in the refrigerator, uncovered, is enough.
Soubise sauce (No. 543)An onion purée bound with béchamel or rice, cooked down until very thick. "Well-reduced" is the operative phrase — it should mound on a spoon like stiff mashed potato, not pour. A thin soubise will not hold on the meat.
Fine herbs (No. 385) The recipe calls for "cooked fine herbs", i.e. a cooked mixture, typically shallot and mushroom sweated in butter with parsley, rather than the raw four-herb blend sold under that name now. Squeeze out excess moisture before folding it into the sauce.
Half-glaze (No. 413)Demi-glace: brown sauce reduced with veal stock until it coats. A well-reduced veal or lamb stock with a little tomato does the same job if you are not making the book's espagnole from scratch.
"Rare" means barely colouredThe first sauté sets the outside only, since the cutlets get a second frying after breading. Take them off at about 115-120F internal; they finish in the butter.
Clarified butter, and whyButter solids scorch before the parmesan crust colours. Clarify it, or use half butter and half neutral oil, and keep the pan at a steady medium — the cheese in the crumbs browns faster than plain breadcrumbs.
The tomatoesPeel, halve crosswise, press out the seeds and juice, then fry cut side down in butter until they hold their shape. Out of season, this is the weak point of the dish; canned will not stand up as a base.
Potato ballsCut with a large melon baller from peeled potatoes, blanch two minutes in salted water, drain very dry, then fry in butter until golden. Three-quarters of an inch is about 2 cm.
YieldTwelve cutlets serves four to six, three or two per plate depending on the size of the rack. Everything but the final frying can be done several hours ahead.

A Little History

The Epicurean of Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's in New York, ran to some 3,500 numbered recipes when it appeared in 1894, and its cross-referencing system is why a single dish like this reads as an index entry. À la Maintenon is generally traced to Françoise d'Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon, second wife of Louis XIV, and in nineteenth-century French kitchens the name was commonly attached to cutlets masked with a thick onion soubise, which were then either crumbed and fried or cooked en papillote. Ranhofer's version is a classical one with a composed plating: the fried tomato base and the buttered potato balls present each cutlet as a self-contained object on the plate rather than as part of a platter carved at table.