No. 1760

Lamb Sweetbreads a la Financiere

Ris d'Agneau a la Financiere

Lard with lardons (No. 4, Fig. 52) some even sized lamb sweetbreads previously parboiled, refreshed and put to cool under a weight, range them closely together in a sautoir lined with fat pork, roots and minced onions; moisten to half their heighth with stock (No. 194a), and let this liquid fall to a glaze; moisten once more and finish cooking in a moderate oven, basting over frequently in order to glaze them well. Prepare a rice border, shaping it by hand and channeling with a piece of wet turnip, or else a molded one may be used, pour some butter over this, and brown it in the oven. Range in the center of the border a financiere garnishing composed of truffles, quenelles, escalops of foies-gras, mushrooms, and cock's-combs, pouring over a financiere sauce (No. 464), place the glazed sweetbreads on top of this garnishing.

← No. 1759 Stewed Lamb with Turnips Lamb No. 1761 Lamb Sweetbreads a la Joinville →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stocks, forcemeats and garnishes already standing by, so most of the work here happens in the cross-references. The dish itself is a simple glaze-braise; the assembly is where the labor sits.

Sweetbreads and the pressingLamb sweetbreads are thymus glands, rarely sold at retail now; veal sweetbreads are the usual substitute and are larger, so cut them to matching size. The parboil-refresh-press sequence is not optional decoration: soaking and blanching firms the gland and the weight (a plate and a can, refrigerated a few hours) compacts it so it slices and glazes cleanly.
Larding"Lard with lardons" means threading strips of fatback through the surface with a larding needle. If you skip it, bard instead by draping thin sheets of fatback or unsmoked fat over the sweetbreads during the braise, or they will dry.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow pan; any wide sauté pan or braiser with a lid works. The point is that the sweetbreads sit in a single close layer so the liquid comes only halfway up them.
Oven heatThe book gives no temperatures; a 'moderate oven' is conventionally taken as somewhere around 350F. Small lamb sweetbreads will want roughly 20 to 30 minutes at that heat, veal longer; baste often so the reduced stock lacquers the surface.
The two moisteningsThis is the hinge. Reducing the first addition of stock to a glaze, then adding more, builds the shine and the depth of color. Pour in all the liquid at once and you get a pale poached sweetbread in broth.
Stock No. 194aOne of Ranhofer's numbered stocks. A good unsalted veal or chicken stock stands in; keep it unsalted, because it is reduced twice.
Financière garnish and sauceFinanciere garnish and sauce -- Truffles, quenelles, foie gras escalopes, mushrooms and cocks' combs bound in a Madeira-and-truffle sauce. Cocks' combs are very hard to find in the United States now; the garnish reads perfectly well without them, or with a few glazed pearl onions in their place.
The rice borderShort-grain rice cooked soft enough to hold a shape, packed into a ring mold or built up by hand on the platter, grooved with a cut piece of turnip, buttered and browned. It is a serving vessel, not a side dish, and it must be firm before the sauce goes in.
YieldNo count is given. Figure one lamb sweetbread, or half a veal sweetbread, per person as a course.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and à la financière is one of the grand nineteenth-century garnitures, its name — "in the financier's style" — a straightforward advertisement of expense: truffles, foie gras, cocks' combs and kidneys, forcemeat quenelles, all under a Madeira sauce. Escoffier codified much the same list a decade later. Sweetbreads occupied a particular place in this cooking because they are mild, pale and take a glaze beautifully, which made them a neutral platform for costly garnish; the rice border, browned and channeled, belongs to a service style in which the platter was constructed as much as plated, and it disappeared along with the sideboard carving and the long menus that gave it a reason to exist.