No. 1775

Chitterlings of Troyes

Andouillettes de Troyes

Chitterlings require a great deal of care in their preparation; in fact it must be remarked that the quality depends entirely upon the proper cleansing of the bowels.

Ingredients.—Pork bowels, calf's crow, throat fat taken from the pig, salt, pepper, allspice, nutmeg, onion, shallot, mignonette and parsley. Take some pork bowels, removing the stomach and the casing, only using the large intestine, wash this in cold water. Turn it inside out in such a way that the fatty part is inside; in order to accomplish this easily, take a stick a yard long, place the end of it in three inches of the narrowest end of the pipe and run the pipe entirely on the stick, keeping it all the time in its original place; when it is all on let slide by pulling it slowly on the first part, that is on the stick, and the pipe will turn over all alone. Now clean it in lukewarm water acidulated with vinegar, changing it three times and leave to soak for three hours; rub it once more through the hands so as to remove all the remaining gluey parts. Put aside the uncrimped part of the pipe which will answer for wrapping purposes and set the remainder in a pot full of cold water; heat until the pipe becomes a little hard, not letting it boil. Afterward cut the pipe lengthwise, lay it perfectly flat spread it out and clean it thoroughly; cut it into thin strips as long as possible without separating the parts. Cut also into the same lengths the crimped part of a calf's crow suppressing the fat center. Cut up about a pound and a half of salt pork into strips. Now lay all these out on a table in the proportion of two-thirds of the bowels and the other third composed of crow and throat fat; dress in oblong shape, being careful that the left side has the least possible loose ends; the size to be about eight to nine strips. Season this laid out part with a minced seasoning composed of three onions, three shallots, half a handful of very finely chopped parsley, pepper, allspice, nutmeg and mignonette, strewing it over the whole. Pass a strap made of two six inch lengths of birchwood fastened together with an inch length of string through the opening on the left end, and turn it in such a way that the chitterling has the appearance of a twisted cable. Cut the pipes laid aside for wrapping purposes into sixteen inch lengths, have the fatty part outside, operating the same as when turning over the gut itself, placing the gut one inch below the hole; run the chitterling through, being careful to keep the first end at the extremity of the chitterling; tie both ends. Although this may appear very easy, yet it is a difficult operation to perform for the first time and requires a certain practice.

To Cook the Chitterlings.—To have them very white, cook in a stock of half milk, half water, one onion, thyme, bay leaf, salt and lemon; leave to boil slowly for about three hours. In order to give a finer appearance, restuff the chitterling after the first cooking in an uncrimped pipe and leave on a slow fire for fifteen minutes, keeping it near boiling point. Now lay it in a napkin and press between two boards with weights on top or else in the press (Fig. 71); the chitterlings will be square-shaped.

To Broil.—Score the chitterlings on both sides about three-sixteenths of an inch in depth, baste with oil or butter, broil on a slow fire and dress on a dish over a little clear gravy (No. 404).

← No. 1774 Chine of Pork a la Parmentier Pork No. 1776 Pork Cutlets a l'Aurora →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is describing the true andouillette de Troyes: strips of large intestine and calf mesentery, hand-laid, drawn through a casing, poached in a white court-bouillon and pressed. The work is all in the cleaning, and the recipe says so in its first line.

The hinge: cleaning and coldEverything depends on the wash. Three changes of lukewarm vinegar water, a three-hour soak, then rubbing by hand to strip the last of the mucosa. Raw pig intestine is a known carrier of Yersinia enterocolitica, so keep the chitterlings and their rinse water away from everything else in the kitchen, wash hands and surfaces before touching salad or bread, and keep the meat cold whenever it is not being worked.
Calf's crowThe mesentery of a calf, sold in France as fraise de veau; older English-language butchery also calls it "crow." It is not caul fat. A butcher who handles offal can order it; without it, more intestine and a little more fat is a substitution, though it changes the texture.
Throat fatThe soft fat from the pig's jowl and neck. Fresh jowl fat or fatback answers. The recipe also has you cut about a pound and a half of salt pork into strips; the text does not make clear whether this is separate from the throat fat or the same fat salted.
MignonetteCoarsely cracked white peppercorns, not a vinegar sauce and not the shallot mignonette served with oysters. Crack them yourself; the point is the size of the fragment.
The wrapping casingThe "uncrimped" length set aside is the smooth section of gut used as an outer sleeve. Modern equivalent: a wide hog casing or beef bung, soaked and rinsed. Cut sixteen-inch lengths as directed.
The birch strapTwo six-inch splints tied an inch apart, used as a handle to twist the laid-out strips into a cable. A pair of wooden skewers or chopsticks lashed at one end does the same job.
Cooking liquidHalf milk, half water with onion, thyme, bay, salt and lemon is there to keep the offal pale rather than to flavor it; the recipe says "to have them very white." Hold it at a bare simmer for the three hours -- the text says boil slowly -- since a hard boil risks curdling the milk and bursting the casing.
PressingThe napkin-and-weighted-boards step gives the squared cross-section that lets the finished andouillette be scored and grilled flat. Overnight in the refrigerator under weight is more practical than pressing warm on a counter.
Broiling"A slow fire" means gentle, moderate heat rather than a fierce one; the book gives no temperature. The chitterling is already cooked through from the three-hour poach, so broiling only crisps the scored surface and renders the fat.

A Little History

Andouillette is a chitterling sausage of northeastern France, and the version from Troyes, in Champagne, is the one that became a benchmark: intestine and calf mesentery cut lengthwise into strips and assembled by hand rather than ground, so a cut slice shows the strands. Troyes' reputation for the sausage is traditionally traced to the town's medieval tripe trade and its guild of tripiers, and the style is now defended by an association of connoisseurs, the AAAAA, formed in the second half of the twentieth century, which awards its mark to butchers working in the strip-laid manner Ranhofer describes here. Its presence in The Epicurean (1894) is a reminder that Delmonico's kitchen was staffed by Frenchmen cooking the whole animal, and that the book was as much a professional manual as a menu: Ranhofer includes the plate press by figure number and warns, accurately, that the trussing is harder than it reads.