No. 2049

Young Wild Boar—Quarter—Garnished with Cutlets and Breasts Marinade Sauce

Quartier de Marcassin Garni de Cotelettes et de Poitrines, Sauce Marinade

Have a quarter of young wild boar very tender; suppress the rind and marinate in a cooked cold marinade (No. 114) for twenty-four hours; drain and wrap in several sheets of strong buttered paper. Put it in a roasting pan and cook it in the oven. Have the breasts braised, and when done bone and lay them under a light weight to get cold, then cut them into eight pieces paring each one to the shape of a half heart, then dip in eggs and bread-crumbs, and fry till hot and of a fine golden color. Trim eight cutlets, marinate them for twenty-four hours, drain, wipe and saute with clarified butter. Dress the breasts on one side of the quarter and the cutlets on the other, glaze them with meat glaze (No. 402) and cover the quarter with a little marinade sauce (No. 496), serve more of it separately with the boar, trimming the handle of the leg with a paper frill (No. 10).

← No. 2048 Boar (wild Pig) Tenderloins Roasted, Haunch,Venison & Large Game No. 2050 Boar Saddle and Quarter—Roasted →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade, leaning on numbered cross-references for the marinade, the glaze and the sauce. The dish is really three preparations plated together: a roast quarter, breaded fried breast, and sauteed cutlets.

MarcassinA marcassin is a young wild boar, usually taken in its first year and often still striped or newly brown. A quarter from an animal that size is a modest joint; a farmed wild-boar leg is the practical substitute, though it will be larger and older and want longer cooking.
The cooked marinadeNo. 114 is a boiled-and-cooled marinade of wine and vinegar with aromatic vegetables and herbs. The recipe specifies it cold, and it should be fully cold before the meat goes in.
Buttered paperSeveral sheets of strong buttered paper are a bard: they keep the lean, marinated surface from drying while the interior comes up. Parchment tied with butcher's twine does the same job; remove it for the last twenty minutes if you want colour.
Oven heatNo temperature is given; the book leaves oven heat to the cook's judgement. Start at 425F for fifteen minutes to set the outside, then drop to 325F for the remainder.
Internal temperatureWild boar carries the same trichinella risk as any wild pig and should reach 160F at the thickest point. Rest fifteen to twenty minutes before carving.
The breasts"Breasts" here means the belly and rib plate, braised until tender, boned while warm, then laid under a light weight until cold, as the recipe directs, so it can be cut cleanly. The half-heart shapes are cosmetic; squares work as well and waste less.
Cutlets and clarified butterThe cutlets are rib chops, marinated alongside the quarter. Clarified butter is specified because whole butter's milk solids burn at the heat needed to colour a chop quickly; ghee or a butter-oil mix does the same.
Glaze and sauceMeat glaze (No. 402) is stock reduced to a syrup, brushed on for shine. Marinade sauce (No. 496) is a sharp brown game sauce built on the marinade; any similar sauce fills the role.
YieldEight cutlets and eight pieces of breast set the scale at eight portions, with the carved quarter as the main portion and one piece of each garnish per person.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows how closely the kitchen still followed the French repertoire in which he trained. Wild boar was a prestige game meat in Europe long before it appeared on an American menu, and the twenty-four-hour cooked marinade is inherited straight from the old handling of dark, strong-flavoured game: acid and aromatics to soften the muscle and temper what nineteenth-century writers called the gout de venaison. The construction of the plate is pure haute cuisine of the period, where a single roast was rarely sent out alone but flanked with garnishes made from the same animal's cheaper cuts, the whole thing finished with glaze and a paper frill on the bone. Wild boar is generally thought to have been uncommon in American markets when Ranhofer wrote.