No. 1682

Lamb Cutlets a la Nubian

Cotelettes d'Agneau a la Nubienne

Cook and dress them the same as cutlets a la minute (No. 1680), garnish the center of the circle with minced truffles minced mushrooms, rounds of red beef tongue cut one inch across, and an eighth of an inch thick, the whole mingled with veloute sauce (No. 415) and essence of mushrooms (No. 392). Place around the edge of the dish a few ball-shaped rice croquettes an inch and a quarter in diameter and serve the whole very hot.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade: this entry is a garnish and a plating instruction resting on three other numbered recipes. Read it as an assembly, and get the components ready before a single cutlet hits the pan.

What "a la minute" means hereNo. 1680 is the plain fast-cooked cutlet: seasoned, buttered or oiled and cooked quickly in a hot saute pan, a couple of minutes a side for a trimmed rib chop. They are meant to go out pink; held warm while you fuss with garnish they will be grey.
The circleThe recipe assumes the cutlets are arranged in a ring on a round dish, with the garnish heaped in the middle: it speaks of "the center of the circle" and provides no separate serving vessel for the ragout.
Velouté (No. 415)Veloute (No. 415) -- A white roux loosened with stock and simmered down. You need only enough thick sauce to bind the garnish; it should coat, not pool.
Essence of mushrooms (No. 392)Not an extract you can buy. It is mushroom trimmings and stems simmered in a little stock and reduced hard to a dark, concentrated liquor. A tablespoon or two of reduced mushroom cooking liquid does the same work.
TrufflesFresh black truffle at this scale is a luxury the original kitchen took for granted. Preserved winter truffle, finely minced and added off the heat, is the practical substitute; truffle oil is not, as it flattens into perfume once it hits hot velouté.
Red beef tongueThis means cured (saltpetre-pinked) tongue, already braised until tender, peeled and chilled, then cut in rounds an inch across and an eighth of an inch thick as the recipe specifies -- thin, not chunky. Deli-sliced cured tongue cut with a small round cutter is the shortcut; fresh uncured tongue will be grey-brown and lose the colour contrast.
Rice croquettesBalls an inch and a quarter across need to be made well ahead: a stiff rice cooked in stock or milk, bound with egg yolk, cooled until firm, rolled, breaded and deep fried at 350–360F until golden. Warm rice will not hold a sphere.
Yield and order of workThe recipe gives no yield; figuring two to three rib cutlets per person, a dozen cutlets would serve four to six. Have garnish hot, croquettes fried and draining, and dish warmed before cooking the lamb, because the final assembly is quick.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the repertoire he cooked at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry is characteristic of its method: one base preparation, then dozens of variations distinguished only by garnish and a name. The nineteenth-century French kitchen used geographic and ethnic epithets loosely as colour codes rather than as claims of origin, and à la nubienne is generally taken to signal the dark elements on the plate, here the black truffle against white velouté and pink tongue; there is nothing Nubian about the cooking. Pickled or "red" beef tongue supplies the neat rounds on the plate, and the rice croquettes around the rim are the sort of fried garnish that gave a plate height and crunch.