No. 1687

Lamb Cutlets a la Talma

Cotelettes d'Agneau a la Talma

Fry twelve lamb cutlets, keeping them quite rare; lay them under a light weight or in the press (No. 71) and when partly cold, pare and dip them in a rather thick, nearly cold bechamel sauce (No. 409); range them on a sheet of buttered paper and on every cutlet place a slice of foies-gras, cover this over with more bechamel and when partly cold, dredge over with bread-crumbs and trim well the cutlets, removing the excess of sauce, strew with a little parmesan cheese, pour on a little butter and brown to a fine golden color in the oven, trim the handles with a frill (No. 10) and dress in a circle filling the center with minced fresh mushrooms mingled with supreme sauce (No. 547) and lay around thin round slices of truffle pouring a little half-glaze sauce (No. 413) over these, and serve.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a classic à la Villeroi construction under another name: cooked cutlets are jacketed in stiff sauce, crumbed and browned. The hinge is temperature — the béchamel must be cold and thick enough to hold its shape before the crumbs go on, or the coating slides off in the oven.

The cross-referencesRanhofer's numbers point to other entries in The Epicurean: No. 409 béchamel, No. 547 sauce suprême, No. 413 half-glaze (demi-glace), No. 71 the meat press, No. 10 the paper frills. Any modern equivalent will do, but the béchamel needs to be reduced well past pouring consistency — closer to a stiff pastry cream than a sauce.
Pressing the cutletsThe "press" flattens the fried cutlets to an even thickness so the sauce coats evenly and the finished pieces sit flat. A sheet pan with a couple of cans on top, in the refrigerator, does the same job.
Rare, then brownedFrying the cutlets rare is deliberate — they get a second heat in the oven. Sear them 1–2 minutes a side and no more, or the finished cutlet will be grey inside under all that sauce.
Oven heatRanhofer gives no temperature, only 'brown to a fine golden color in the oven'. For a crumbed, cheese-dusted surface that means quick heat: a hot oven of roughly 425-450F, or a few minutes under the broiler, will do it. The goal is colour on the crust, not further cooking of the lamb.
Foies-grasA slice of foie gras, not pâté or mousse — the whole cooked liver, cut about a quarter inch thick. Mousse will melt away into the béchamel. Note that foie gras is restricted in some jurisdictions; a slice of good chicken-liver parfait, well chilled, sits in the same place.
TrufflesThe garnish calls for truffle cut in thin rounds; Ranhofer's kitchen would as likely have used imported preserved truffle as fresh. Preserved truffle in a jar is the practical substitute; truffle oil is not, since the dish wants the slices as an element on the plate.
Assembly is a cold jobDip, chill, top with foie gras, sauce again, chill again, then crumb. Each layer must set before the next goes on. Trimming away excess sauce, as directed, is what gives the finished cutlet its clean shape.
YieldTwelve cutlets serves four to six as a main course, or six to eight in a longer menu of the sort this book was written for. The paper frills are purely for the presentation of the bones and can be skipped.

A Little History

The name honours François-Joseph Talma (1763–1826), the tragedian who dominated the Paris stage under Napoleon and whose name attached itself to a cloak, a hairstyle and, inevitably, a garnish — nineteenth-century kitchens named dishes after performers as readily as after generals, and Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) is thick with them. The technique beneath the name is older than the dedication: coating cooked meat in a cold, stiff sauce, crumbing it and browning it is a method often likened to the one called à la Villeroi, a staple of French service that let a kitchen prepare cutlets hours ahead and finish them to order. Ranhofer had run the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for decades by the time he wrote the book, and recipes like this one — foie gras, truffle, three separate sauces for twelve small cutlets — record what an American restaurant could put on a plate when labour was cheap.