No. 1693

Lamb Cutlets with String Beans

Cotelettes d'Agneau aux Haricots Verts

Pare the breast bones four inches long, cut off the neck to the third rib, saw off the spinal bone without spoiling the fillets as far as the rib, then cut from each rack five, six, or seven chops according to the thickness of the meat and the purpose they are intended for. Remove the meat from the end bones of each chop an inch deep, and flatten the meat lightly; suppress the fibrous skin adhering to the kernel, also the one attached to the bone; season with salt, and dip in melted butter; roll them in fresh bread-crumbs, then broil over a brisk fire, turning them only once during the operation. Trim the handles with frills (No. 10), dress and garnish with sauted string beans (No. 2829), pour around some clear gravy (No. 404) having had a blanched and chopped shallot boiled in with it and serve.

← No. 1692 Lamb Cutlets in Papers Lamb No. 1694 Epigrammes of Lamb a la Toulouse →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a butcher's rack of lamb on the bone and a coal grill; the method is straightforward once the butchery is translated. Cross-references (No. 2829, No. 404, No. 10) point elsewhere in the book, so the garnish and sauce have to be supplied.

Ask the butcher"Pare the breast bones four inches long... saw off the spinal bone" is a French-trimmed rack. Order a rack of lamb, chine bone removed and bones frenched about an inch, then cut into single chops. Five to seven chops per rack is still what you get.
The kernel and the skinThe "kernel" appears to be the eye of meat; the fibrous skin is what we would call silverskin, and the recipe names a second skin attached to the bone. Both shrink over heat and curl the chop, so strip them before crumbing.
Flatten lightly, not thinA cutlet bat or the flat of a heavy knife, one or two taps to even the thickness; the recipe says only "flatten the meat lightly." Pounded thinner, a breaded lamb chop overcooks before the crumbs colour.
Butter then crumbs, no eggThe coating here is salt, melted butter and fresh breadcrumbs, with no egg wash. It is fragile, and the recipe directs that the chops be turned only once.
"A brisk fire" and the donenessHigh direct heat, grill or a heavy pan, roughly 3–4 minutes a side for medium-rare at 130–135F internal. Crumbs over a brisk fire go from golden to black quickly, so keep a cooler zone in reserve.
Frills are optionalNo. 10 is the paper cutlet frill of the period, purely decorative and now rarely seen. Nothing is lost by skipping it.
The garnish and sauceSautéed string beans means green beans blanched until just tender, then tossed in butter. The "clear gravy" of No. 404 is, as the name implies, an unthickened meat gravy rather than a flour-thickened one; simmer the blanched chopped shallot in it for a few minutes and spoon it around the plate, not over the crumbs.
YieldOne rack, cut into six chops, serves two as a main course or three as part of a longer menu of the kind Ranhofer was writing for.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, where he was chef through most of the period between 1862 and 1896, and its numbering system is a working code: nearly every dish sends you to a sauce, a garnish or a table setting elsewhere in the book's several thousand entries. Breaded lamb cutlets grilled and ringed with a green vegetable are a staple of nineteenth-century French service, and haricots verts here means the young, thin beans eaten pod and all. The paper frill on the bone, cross-referenced as No. 10, is a marker of the period; it is often said to have given a diner something clean to hold the bone by, though that explanation is traditional rather than documented.