No. 1763

Lambs' Tails a la Conti

Queues d'Agneau a la Conti

Parboil twelve yearling lambs' tails cut from the saddle at the beginning of the tail. Cover the bottom of a sautoir (Fig. 130) with fragments of fat pork, minced carrots and onions and a garnished bouquet (NO. 123); put in the tails and moisten to their entire height with broth (No. 194a), then let them cook slowly in the oven. When done, drain them on a baking sheet, be-sprinkle with salt and set a weight on top, strain the stock, remove the fat and reduce it to half; when the tails are cold, pare them by cutting off the ends so that they remain only three and a half inches long, dip in melted butter, then in bread-crumbs and broil on a slow fire, dress on a dish in a circle, glaze well and fill the inside space with a thick lentil puree (No. 719). A thick half-glaze sauce (No. 413) accompanies these tails having it served separately.

← No. 1762 Lamb Sweetbreads a la Sevigne Lamb No. 1764 Tendrons or Gristle of Lamb with Robert Sauc →

For the Modern Kitchen

A two-stage braise-then-grill treatment of a cut most butchers now discard. The hinge is the pressing: the tails must be weighted while still warm and left until cold, or they will not slice, breadcrumb or hold their shape on the grill.

Sourcing the tailsYearling lambs' tails cut long from the saddle are not a supermarket item; most lambs are docked short in the first week of life. A halal or Middle Eastern butcher, or a small abattoir taking whole-lamb orders, is the realistic source. Ask for them untrimmed so there is length to pare back to three and a half inches.
SautoirA shallow straight-sided pan, wider than deep — a modern sauté pan or a low braiser. It needs a lid or a tight cover of foil for the oven stage.
"Cook slowly in the oven"A covered braise in a moderate oven, the equivalent of roughly 300-325F. Ranhofer gives neither temperature nor time; expect a couple of hours and judge by a skewer meeting no resistance at the joints. They are gelatinous cuts and undercooking leaves them tough rather than merely firm.
"Moisten to their entire height"Add enough broth to just submerge the tails, no more. No. 194a is one of Ranhofer's broths; an unsalted chicken or light veal stock does the same work, and it is worth keeping unsalted since the stock is later reduced by half.
Bouquet garni and fat porkThe "garnished bouquet" (No. 123) is the usual bundle of parsley, thyme and bay; the fat pork fragments would be unsmoked pork fat or salt pork, there to enrich the braise and stop scorching. Blanch salt pork first if it is heavily cured.
PressingLay the drained tails flat on a sheet, salt lightly, cover with a second sheet and weight it with a few tins. Chill under the weight for at least 4 hours or overnight; this is what makes the crumbing and grilling possible.
"Broil on a slow fire"Moderate heat at a distance, not a hard sear. The tails are already cooked, so the aim is to colour the crumbs evenly over 8-10 minutes with turning. A broiler set on medium with the pan low, or a grill with the coals raked to the side, gives more control than direct high heat.
The accompanimentsNo. 719 is a lentil purée thick enough to hold a spoon mark — green or brown lentils cooked soft with aromatics and a little pork, passed and dried out over heat. No. 413 is a half-glaze, i.e. demi-glace; the reduced braising liquid from the tails, further reduced to a syrup, is the natural glaze for brushing.
YieldTwelve tails serve six as a course, two apiece arranged in a ring with the purée in the centre.

A Little History

À la Conti, in nineteenth-century French kitchen shorthand, means lentils — the garnish is generally traced to the household of the Princes de Condé and Conti. Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is his attempt to set down the whole classical repertoire, including the thrift dishes that a restaurant butchering whole carcasses could not afford to waste. Lambs' tails belong to that category: gelatinous, cheap, and worth serving only if labour is cheap too, which in a brigade kitchen it was. The braise-press-crumb-grill sequence here is the same technique applied to pig's ears, calves' feet and lamb breast throughout the period — collagen-rich cuts cooked to softness, set firm under weight, then crumbed to give them a crust they cannot develop on their own. The dish has largely vanished with the practice of docking lambs young and the disappearance of whole-animal butchery from restaurant kitchens.