No. 1798

Rack of Pork Crown-Shaped with Small Onions

Carre de Porc en Couronne aux Petits Oignons

Cut off two racks containing six cutlets each, both the same length and height, leaving on a part of the loin; suppress the chine bone as far as the beginning of the ribs and lay the meats in a round or oval deep dish so that the kernel of the chops be inside and the ends of the cutlets outside; tie the ends together with a piece of string and fill the inside of the crown thus obtained with sausage forcemeat into which has been mixed eggs and bread-crumbs, then cook in the oven for an hour and a half. Fry sixty small onions or more in butter, having them only slightly browned, then finish cooking in stock (No. 194a) till they fall to a glaze; dress and glaze the crown, garnish the center with onions and pour a Robert sauce (No. 533) over the whole, or a Provencal sauce (No. 529) to which add a little tomato sauce (No. 549).

← No. 1797 Quarter of Pork Valenciennes Pork No. 1799 Rack of Pork on the Spit →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a butcher who knows what a chine bone is and a cook who judges doneness by eye. Two adjustments do most of the work: give the butcher precise instructions, and cook to internal temperature rather than to the stated hour and a half.

What to ask the butcher forTwo center-cut rib racks of six chops each, matched in length, chine bone removed and the rib ends frenched about an inch and a half. Removing the chine is what allows the racks to bend into a circle; without it they will not curve.
Building the crownScore between the ribs on the outside so the racks flex, stand them with the kernel of the chops inside and the rib ends outside as Ranhofer directs, and lash the two joins with butcher's twine at top and bottom. The round or oval deep dish Ranhofer specifies acts as a form and keeps the shape until the meat sets.
Oven temperatureNo temperature is given because none could be. Roast at 425F for the first 20 minutes to color the outside, then drop to 325F for the remainder.
Time and donenessAn hour and a half is optimistic for twelve chops packed with raw forcemeat. Cook until the loin meat reads 145F and the stuffing at its center reads 165F, then rest 20 minutes; on a 6-8 lb crown that is usually closer to two hours. Modern pork is bred leaner than Ranhofer's and dries out badly past 150F.
The forcemeatSausage forcemeat with egg and breadcrumbs is essentially a fine sausage meat bound to hold its shape. Use about 2 lb of coarse-ground fresh pork sausage, two eggs and a cup of dry crumbs. Pack it loosely, not tightly, or the center will still be cold when the meat is done.
Bone tipsCap the frenched ends with foil for the roasting, and remove it for the last fifteen minutes. Paper frills were a common period finish for exposed bone ends, though Ranhofer does not mention them here; foil does the same job and is not eaten.
Sixty small onionsRoughly 2 to 3 lb depending on size, as pearl onions run considerably smaller than small boiling onions. Fresh ones need blanching and peeling; frozen peeled pearl onions work and skip the tedium. Brown them lightly in butter, then braise in stock until the liquid reduces to a syrup that coats them, about 25 minutes.
Stock No. 194a and the saucesThe stock referenced is one of Ranhofer's own numbered stock preparations; a good unsalted brown chicken or veal stock stands in. Robert sauce is onion, white wine, demi-glace and mustard, the mustard added off the heat so it does not turn bitter. Provencale is tomato, garlic and oil; the tomato sauce Ranhofer suggests adding pushes it further in that direction.
YieldTwelve chops with stuffing serves eight to ten. Carve down between the ribs at the table and spoon stuffing and onions alongside.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades, and The Epicurean (1894) is the record of what a large American restaurant brigade could execute at the height of the Gilded Age. The crown roast belongs to a family of nineteenth-century showpiece presentations built on the same idea: take an ordinary cut, force it into an architectural shape, and fill the void with something else. En couronne is simply the French for 'in a crown' and is used of ring-shaped presentations generally; how early rib racks specifically were bent this way is not clear, though the form was applied to lamb and veal as well as pork. What dates this particular version is the scale of the garnish -- sixty glazed onions cooked down to a glaze -- and the offer of two finishing sauces by cross-reference, both of them standard items in a brigade's repertoire. The crown roast survived the restaurant that produced it and became, by the mid-twentieth century, an American holiday centerpiece, often with the onions replaced by a bread or apple stuffing.