No. 1681

Lamb Cutlets, Murillo

Cotelettes d'Agneau a la Murillo

Pare twelve lamb cutlets having them both wide and thin; range them in a sautoir with hot butter, laying them all one way; cook on one side only, then drain and cover this cooked side with slightly cold minced mushrooms reduced and thickened with some good bechamel (No. 409) finishing with a dash of cayenne pepper, smooth the surface of these mushrooms nicely, dredge over with grated parmesan, sprinkle with melted butter. Return the chops to the sautoir, and set it in the hot oven to finish cooking and brown. Dress them at once on separate plates with a little half-glaze (No. 400) on the bottom and hand them to the guests.

← No. 1680 Lamb Cutlets a la Minute, with Mushrooms, Sa Lamb No. 1682 Lamb Cutlets a la Nubian →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's method is a one-sided sear followed by a gratin finish, so the cutlets cook through under the broiler-hot oven rather than in the pan. Everything depends on getting the mushroom duxelles stiff and cold before it goes on.

The hinge: a dry, cold mushroom mixtureMince the mushrooms fine, cook off all their water in butter, then bind with just enough béchamel to hold — the mass should mound on a spoon, not slump. Chill it before spreading, or it will slide off the cutlet in the oven and the coating will never brown evenly.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow pan, roughly what we call a sauté pan or a lidless skillet. It needs to be ovenproof, since the cutlets go back into it to finish.
Hot ovenThe book gives no temperatures. A very hot oven, in the region of 450F, suits the purpose, which is to glaze and brown the parmesan crust quickly; longer and gentler will overcook the lamb. A broiler set a few inches below the element does much the same job.
Cutlets, wide and thinSingle-rib lamb chops, flattened lightly to something like 1/2 inch. The recipe gives no yield; twelve cutlets would make six portions at two apiece. Sear only the presentation side and leave the second side raw -- the oven finishes it.
DonenessThe recipe has the cutlets 'finish cooking' in the oven. Thin cutlets given a hard sear and a short spell under high heat will land near medium; pull them when the meat springs back but still yields.
No. 409 and No. 400Béchamel and demi-glace, from the sauce chapter. A well-reduced brown stock sauce stands in for the half-glaze; put a spoonful on the warm plate and set the cutlet on it, not over it, so the crust stays crisp.
Parmesan and butterGrate the cheese finely so it melts rather than beads, and use clarified butter for the sprinkling — whole butter's milk solids scorch at this heat.

A Little History

The recipe comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium he assembled after some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York. Dishes in it are routinely named for painters, singers, diplomats and regular patrons, and Murillo is presumably the seventeenth-century Sevillian painter Bartolome Esteban Murillo, though Ranhofer does not say so; the name signals a house garnish rather than anything Spanish about the dish, which is French in technique. Searing on a single face so the raw side can be masked with duxelles, gratineed and cooked through in one operation is a technique of the period. Ranhofer's instruction to dress them "on separate plates" and hand them to the guests at once reflects the individually plated service associated with Delmonico's.