No. 1809

Suckling Pig, Piedmontese Style

Cochon de Lait a la Piemontaise

Pick and wash two pounds of rice; parboil and lay aside a third part, then put it into a saucepan with strained unskimmed stock (No. 194a) reaching to more than twice its heighth, season with a little salt, pepper and nutmeg, and when the rice is cooked which will take about half an hour, stir in with a fork, four tablespoonfuls of grated parmesan. Stuff the inside of the pig with this, sew it up and cook it on a cradle spit or in the oven, basting it over frequently with sweet oil. Three-quarters of an hour before serving, set the other two-thirds of rice in a saucepan, moisten it with stock (No. 194a) and half a pound chicken fat, adding also a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme, bay leaf and a clove of garlic, bring to a boil, place in the oven and when the rice is cooked, remove the parsley and stir in with a fork, fresh butter, meat glaze, grated parmesan and mignonette. Dress this rice around the suckling pig and serve a Colbert sauce (No. 451) separately.

← No. 1808 Spare Ribs, Parisian Style Pork No. 1810 Suckling Pig, Roasted on the Spit, or Stuffe →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer wrote for a brigade with a spit, a stockpot always going, and a numbered cross-reference system. Stripped of those, this is a stuffed suckling pig with two batches of parmesan rice, and the details worth pinning down are the stock, the fats and the roasting.

The split of the rice is misprintedThe split of the rice -- Two pounds of rice are parboiled and "a third part" set aside; the wording of what goes into the saucepan next is ambiguous, but since the text later calls for "the other two-thirds" as the garnish, read the stuffing as the third part. Roughly 11 oz of raw rice becomes the stuffing, 21 oz becomes the bed of rice around the pig. That is a very large amount of garnish rice for a small pig, and halving it is reasonable.
Stock No. 194aThe recipe wants stock strained but unskimmed, so the fat is left on it, and that fat is what carries the rice. A good unsalted chicken stock with the fat not removed does the job. Season carefully, since parmesan and meat glaze both bring salt.
Sweet oil, chicken fat, meat glazeSweet oil is plain olive oil, used for basting because it does not burn as readily as butter. Half a pound of chicken fat is schmaltz or rendered fat skimmed from stock. Meat glaze is glace de viande, stock reduced to a syrup, added by the teaspoon at the end for depth and gloss.
MignonetteCoarsely cracked white peppercorns, not a sauce. Crack them in a mortar rather than grinding fine, and add them at the end so the perfume survives.
Cradle spit or ovenA cradle spit is a basket-shaped rotisserie that holds a whole carcass. In an oven, roast a 12 to 15 lb pig at 325°F, propping the mouth and shoulders so it keeps its shape, basting with oil every 20 minutes. Figure about 15 to 20 minutes per pound, then a short blast at 450°F at the end for skin. Shield ears and tail with foil.
Two temperatures to checkThe shoulder and ham should read 160°F, and the rice stuffing, which is dense and slow to heat, must reach 165°F at the centre. Bring the stuffing to the pig hot and pack it loosely, or the stuffing will lag well behind the meat.
SourcingA suckling pig is a special order from a butcher or a whole-animal supplier, typically 12 to 20 lb dressed and needing a day's notice. Anything much over 20 lb will not fit a domestic oven whole.
Colbert sauceRanhofer's No. 451 is essentially a butter sauce enriched with meat glaze and sharpened with lemon and chopped herbs. Any modern maître d'hôtel butter loosened with reduced stock stands in for it, served warm alongside rather than poured over the skin.
YieldA 12 to 15 lb pig with this quantity of rice serves 12 to 16 as a main course.

A Little History

This is No. 1809 in Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the vast compendium he assembled from decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, where whole suckling pig appeared as banquet fare. "À la piémontaise" in nineteenth-century French kitchen language usually signals rice and parmesan, sometimes with white truffle: Piedmont is Italy's rice country, the paddies around Vercelli and Novara having been under rice since the late fifteenth century, and French chefs used the region's name as shorthand for that combination much as they used "à la provençale" for garlic and tomato. The rice here is handled in two stages, one batch bound with cheese for the cavity and a looser, herb-scented batch as the bed.