No. 1707

Leg of Lamb a la Fearing, Kernel

Noix de Gigot d'Agneau a la Fearing

Lift the kernel from a leg of yearling lamb, pare it exactly the same as a kernel of veal and then fry it in clarifled butter, drain this off and moisten with Madeira wine and some veal blond stock (No. 423), putting in very little at the time, only adding it as fast as it becomes reduced. Dress, strain the gravy, and reduce it with brown sauce (No. 414) and Madeira. For the garnishing have medium-sized whole truffles, cooked fresh mushrooms, cocks-combs and kidneys, all being cooked separately. Dress these in separate and distinct clusters, and cover them all with part of the sauce, serving the rest of it in a sauce-bowl.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes you can butcher a leg of lamb into its separate muscles and that you keep espagnole and veal stock on hand. The hinge is the moistening: liquid goes in a few spoonfuls at a time and is reduced almost dry before the next addition, so the meat glazes rather than boils.

What the "kernel" isThe noix is the large rounded muscle of the leg's inner side, what a modern butcher calls the top round of lamb. Pared clean of fat and silverskin it is a single compact roast of roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb, enough for four.
Yearling lambLamb of about a year is closer to what is sold today as hogget or mature lamb than to spring lamb. Ordinary supermarket lamb is younger and leaner; expect it to cook faster and taste milder.
Clarified butterButter with the milk solids removed, so it takes a browning heat without burning. Ghee works. Ranhofer has you pour it off before any liquid goes in, which keeps the finished sauce from turning greasy.
The two stocksVeal blond stock (No. 423) is a pale, unroasted veal stock; brown sauce (No. 414) is espagnole, a roux-thickened brown veal sauce. A good unsalted veal or beef stock stands in for the first, and a well-reduced brown stock for the second, though it will be thinner than espagnole.
Heat and donenessNo temperature is given because the whole thing happens on the stovetop: fried in butter, then moistened a spoonful at a time and reduced before the next addition. Lamb top round is best pulled at 130-135F internal and rested; carried to falling-apart tenderness it turns dry and grey.
Cocks-combs and kidneysThe combs are the fleshy crest of the rooster, blanched, peeled and simmered; "kidneys" here translates rognons de coq, which in nineteenth-century French kitchens meant the testicles. Both are hard to find outside specialist suppliers, and the practical course is to omit them and lean on the truffles and mushrooms.
TrufflesWhole fresh black truffles were cooked in stock or Madeira in their own right. At current prices, sliced preserved truffle or a few drops of truffle-infused oil added off the heat is the practical compromise, and the dish survives it.
Plating as writtenThe garnishes go on the platter in separate clusters, not mixed, each napped with sauce, the remainder passed at table. This clustered arrangement is the whole visual point of the dish and takes a warmed platter and quick hands.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it runs to some 3,500 numbered recipes cross-referenced to one another exactly as this one is. Dishes "a la Fearing" follow the house habit of naming a preparation after a patron, a public figure or an occasion; Ranhofer rarely explains who is meant, and the attribution here is not documented in the book itself. The garnish is pure high French service of the period: truffles, mushrooms, cockscombs and cocks' kidneys are the standard components of the garniture called financiere, and their presence marks this as a special-occasion plate rather than everyday cookery. That a leg of lamb should be broken down into its individual muscles, with only the noix used and the rest sent elsewhere in the kitchen, tells you as much about a restaurant brigade with many dishes to fill as it does about the meat.