No. 2146

Fillets of Young Rabbits with Artichoke or Mushroom Puree

Filets de Lapereaux a la Puree d'Artichauts ou de Champignons

Raise the fillets and minion fillets; divide the larger ones in two or three pieces, then pare each one and make a deep incision on one side; season this and stuff it with cooked fine herbs (No. 385) mingled with a well-reduced half-glaze sauce (No. 413); bread them English style (No. 13), and broil over a slack fire. Dress in a circle filling the center with a puree of mushrooms (No. 722) or artichokes bottoms (No. 704) and serve separately an espagnole sauce (No. 414) reduced with fumet of rabbit (No. 397). Instead of stuffing the whole inside, one side only need be filled, after sautéing the fillet on one side, mask it with raw game quenelle forcemeat (No. 91), then dip in eggs and bread-crumbs and fry in clarified butter to a fine color; serve the same as the above.

← No. 2145 Fillets of Young Rabbits with Currant Sauce Rabbit, Hare & Squirrel No. 2147 Gibelotte of Rabbits →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade, and half the recipe lives in the cross-references. Here is what the numbers stand for and where the dish can go wrong.

What you are actually cuttingThe "fillets" are the two loin strips from either side of the saddle; the "minion fillets" are the thin tenderloins lying beneath them. A young rabbit yields very little — figure one rabbit per person as a course, or serve it as a first course for two.
The cross-referenced componentsNo. 385 is cooked fine herbs, along the lines of a dry duxelles of mushroom, shallot and parsley; No. 413 half-glaze is demi-glace; No. 13 "English style" breading is egg and breadcrumbs, usually with a preliminary dusting of flour; No. 91 is a raw game quenelle forcemeat; No. 397 fumet is a concentrated stock from the rabbit bones and trimmings. Any competent equivalent will serve.
Stuffing a loin stripThe incision has to be shallow enough to hold without cutting through, and the duxelles must be bound with well-reduced sauce so it is nearly a paste. Loose, wet stuffing will bleed out through the breading over the fire.
"A slack fire"A low, steady heat with the meat set well back from the coals — the point is to cook the stuffed interior through without scorching the crumbs. On a modern grill, medium-low with the lid down, or a heavy pan over medium heat, works the same way.
Do not cook it longRabbit loin is as lean as a rabbit gets and turns dry and cottony past medium. A few minutes a side is enough; take it off at about 155-160F at the center and let it rest.
The forcemeat variationIn the second method the quenelle forcemeat is spread on a fillet already seared on one side, so the raw mousseline sets against the cooked surface during frying. Keep the layer thin — a quarter inch at most — or the outside colors before the forcemeat is cooked through.
Frying in clarified butterClarified butter is specified because whole butter's milk solids burn at the temperature needed to color breadcrumbs. Keep it around 340-350F and turn once.
The pureesNo. 722 mushroom puree and No. 704 artichoke-bottom puree both need to be stiff enough to hold a mound in the center of the ring of fillets. Thin them with cream, not stock, and season assertively; they carry the plate.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book's structure — every preparation reduced to a number and cross-referenced to its component sauces and forcemeats — reflects a kitchen where the mother sauces and garnishes were made daily in quantity and a dish was assembled from them. Lapereau means a young rabbit, distinguished in French markets from the older lapin, and the distinction matters here: only a young animal's loin is tender enough to be broiled or fried outright rather than jugged, braised or turned into the gibelotte that follows in the very next entry. Rabbit was ordinary meat in nineteenth-century America, both wild and hutch-raised, and the section it sits in — grouping rabbit with hare and squirrel — is a reminder of how much small game passed through a first-class restaurant kitchen. The treatment itself is a standard filet formula of the period, applied to game rather than beef: stuff, crumb, color, and set in a circle around a puree, with the sauce passed separately so the crust stays crisp.