No. 1694

Epigrammes of Lamb a la Toulouse

Epigrammes d'Agneau a la Toulouse

Saw off the breasts from two racks of lamb, remove the bone covering the gristle and put the breasts in a saucepan lined with fat pork, carrots, onions and a garnished bouquet (No. 123); cook them just long enough to be able to remove the bones easily, and when this is done drain and range on a baking sheet and set a weight on top. From each rack make five covered cutlets, pare them nicely, season and fry to a fine color, dress and detach the stock from the pan with a little clear gravy (No. 404), with a little half-glaze sauce (No. 413). Pare the breasts into half hearts and when very cold round the angles and insert a bone into each pointed end of the meat; return these to the sautoir, and pour over the stock reduced to a half-glaze. Range the cutlets and breasts alternately or else in straight rows, one of cutlets and one of breasts, or if in a round have one half breasts and the other half cutlets; garnish the center with a Toulouse garnishing (No. 766) either laid in the center or else in a croustade, or should the epigrammes be dressed in a straight row, then place it around. Serve separately the stock strained through a sieve. A cutlet may be set on top a piece of breast which will serve as a crouton, and dress them crown-shaped with the garnishing in the center.

← No. 1693 Lamb Cutlets with String Beans Lamb No. 1695 Epigrammes of Lamb, Ancient Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a two-part dish built from one animal: the loin becomes chops, the breast is braised, pressed flat and cut into shapes so it can be served alongside them. The hinge is the pressing — the breast must be weighted and chilled solid before it is trimmed, or it will fall apart when you cut it.

What you actually needTwo racks of lamb with the breast (belly flap) still attached, plus about 4 oz of fatback or unsmoked streaky bacon to line the pan. Ask a butcher for the whole forequarter cut or racks "as they come"; supermarket racks are sold already trimmed of the breast, and without it half this recipe is impossible.
Braising the breastCover the breasts with stock or water in the lined pan and hold at a bare simmer on the lowest steady flame; Ranhofer specifies a saucepan rather than the oven. Allow roughly 1 1/2 to 2 hours. They are done when the rib bones and the strip of cartilage pull out with finger pressure, not before.
The weight, and why it is overnightThe weight, and why it must be cold -- Press the boned breasts flat between two trays with 3-4 lb on top and chill thoroughly, several hours or overnight. Ranhofer says "when very cold" for a reason: warm braised breast is gelatinous and will tear rather than cut into clean half-hearts.
"Covered cutlets"Ranhofer does not define the term; it most likely means cutlets cut with their covering of meat and fat left on the rib rather than scraped down to the eye. Five per rack means fairly substantial cutlets rather than one per rib. Fry them hot and briefly - 3 to 4 minutes a side for medium rare, 130-135F at the center.
Half-glaze and clear gravyNo. 413 is demi-glace and No. 404 a clear brown veal gravy. A good reduced brown stock, thickened only by reduction, stands in for both; deglaze the frying pan with it and reduce until it coats the back of a spoon before pouring it over the breast pieces.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow pan, not a deep saucepan. Any wide skillet that will hold the breast pieces in one layer while the glaze reduces onto them will do.
Toulouse garnishNo. 766 is the classic Toulouse ragout: veal or chicken quenelles, mushrooms, truffle, and in Ranhofer's version cockscombs and cocks' kidneys bound with a white sauce. Poached quenelles, button mushrooms and a little truffle or truffle oil give the sense of it; the cockscombs are not obtainable and are not missed.
Inserting the bonesSave clean rib bones from paring the cutlets and push one into the point of each breast piece so it mimics a chop. It is decoration, but it is the whole conceit of the dish.
YieldTen cutlets and eight to ten breast pieces — a service for five or six as a main course, or eight if the Toulouse garnish is generous.

A Little History

Epigramme is one of the oldest jokes in French cookery: an 18th-century anecdote, repeated in cookbooks ever since and generally treated as legend rather than documented fact, has a hostess mishearing praise of a dinner guest's épigrammes and ordering her cook to serve some. Whatever its origin, by the 19th century the word had a fixed technical meaning — a plate combining two cuts of lamb cooked two ways, the quick-grilled cutlet next to the slow-braised, pressed and re-fried breast. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published this version in The Epicurean (1894), and it shows the economics of a grand kitchen as clearly as its aesthetics: the breast was the cheap end of an expensive animal, and a house that could afford racks of lamb still expected the trimmings to come to the table looking like the best part. The Toulouse garnish, named for the city but by then a Parisian repertoire item, was the standard dressing for such a dish — quenelles, mushrooms and truffle in a pale sauce, heaped in the middle of a crown of chops.