No. 1688

Lamb Cutlets a la Turenne

Cotelettes d'Agneau a la Turenne

Pare a dozen nice cutlets taken from the covered ribs of the racks and suppress the spinal bone and fibrous skin from the ribs; make a gash across the middle of the kernel and fill it up with a cooked fine herb preparation (No. 385), mingled with a little half-glaze (No. 400) and thickened with egg-yolks. Bread-crumb and fry them in butter, trim the handles with a frill (No. 10), dress the cutlets crown-shaped and cover with a buttered half-glaze sauce (No. 413) into which has been added some mushrooms and stuffed olives (No. 695).

← No. 1687 Lamb Cutlets a la Talma Lamb No. 1689 Lamb Cutlets a la Victor Hugo →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional brigade with a stocked larder, so half the recipe lives in cross-references. Once those are resolved this is a straightforward stuffed, breaded cutlet.

The cross-referencesNo. 385 is a cooked fine-herbs preparation, close to a duxelles of mushroom, shallot and herbs; No. 400 and No. 413 are half-glaze (demi-glace) and a butter-finished version of it; No. 695 is Ranhofer's stuffed olives, though this page does not say what they are stuffed with; No. 10 is a paper cutlet frill. Modern demi-glace, or a reduced veal stock mounted with butter, stands in for the glazes.
Butchery terms"Covered ribs" are the ribs of the rack still carrying their covering of flesh and fat; "suppress the spinal bone" means have the chine removed so each cutlet separates cleanly, and the recipe has the fibrous skin taken off the rib bone, which is what allows a frill to be fitted. A butcher will do all of this if you ask for a frenched rack cut into twelve chops.
The kernelThe "kernel" is the noix, the round eye of meat. The gash is a horizontal pocket cut into its side, not a cut through it; leave three sides intact or the stuffing escapes into the pan.
Binding the stuffingThe duxelles is bound with a little half-glaze and egg yolks off the heat, then chilled firm before it goes into the pocket. Warm, loose stuffing will run out during frying; cold and stiff is the hinge of the whole dish.
Breading"Bread-crumb" here is breading in the English manner: beaten egg, then fine crumbs, often with a preliminary dusting of flour, pressed on and left to set before frying. Press the crumbs over the cut edge of the pocket to seal it.
FryingUse clarified butter, or butter with a little neutral oil, over medium heat; whole butter will brown to bitterness before the cutlets are done. Rib cutlets of this size need roughly three minutes a side, to about 130-135F internal for pink lamb.
Dressing"Crown-shaped" means the cutlets stood upright in a ring, bones outward, leaning on one another. Sauce goes around the base rather than over the crumbs, which otherwise soften. Paper frills are decorative only and can be skipped.
YieldTwelve cutlets from two racks serves six as a course, four as a main.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years' cooking at Delmonico's in New York, and its lamb chapter runs to dozens of near-identical cutlets distinguished only by garnish and a proper name. The names come out of the French repertoire's habit of honouring historical figures: Turenne was the seventeenth-century marshal of France, Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, and like Talma and Victor Hugo on the pages either side, he lends his name to a fixed combination rather than to any dish he ate. Here "a la Turenne" means a garnish of mushrooms and stuffed olives in a buttered half-glaze.