No. 2180

Jugged Venison

Civet de Chevreuil

To jug venison use the breasts, neck, shoulder, and thick loin end (the shoulder and loin ends are to be larded through the meat with seasoned lardons (No. 2, Fig. 52). Cut the meats into pieces an inch and a half to two inches square, and for three pounds of it allow six ounces of unsmoked bacon cut in quarter-inch dice; fry the whole in butter, and when stiffened dredge with three table-spoonfuls of flour; let brown slightly, then moisten with six gills of red wine, and three gills of stock (No. 194a), adding a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, some dry orange peel, a whole clove of garlic, and a seasoning of pepper and salt; cook slowly for one hour and a half, then put in three dozen small onions fried in butter, and three-quarters of a pound of small mushrooms; skim the fat from the surface, and add two gills of brandy, one gill of Madeira, and the strained juice of two lemons, or else three tablespoonfuls of good vinegar. Pile up the meats on a dish; season and reduce the sauce, suppress the parsley, and pour it over the meats; surround with heart-shaped bread croutons fried in oil, then serve.

← No. 2179 Roebuck—Haunch or Quarter—a la Lytton Venison & Large Game No. 2181 Venison—Slices of Kernel—a la Hussarde →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's civet is a straightforward red-wine braise once you translate the volumes and accept that the brandy goes in near the end, not at the start. The quantities below are for the three pounds of meat he specifies, which feeds four to six.

GillsA gill is half a cup. Six gills of red wine is 3 cups, three gills of stock is 1½ cups, two gills of brandy is 1 cup and one gill of Madeira is ½ cup.
ChevreuilRoebuck, the small European roe deer, is not generally available in the United States. Farmed red deer or axis venison shoulder and neck behave the same way; any hard-working cut from a deer will do, and the breast can be left out if your butcher does not sell it.
LardingThe lardons pushed through the shoulder and loin are the reason this works — venison has almost no intramarbling and dries out in a long braise. If you will not lard, use only shoulder and neck and skip the loin entirely, since lean loin has no business in a ninety-minute stew.
Unsmoked baconHe means fresh-cured pork belly, closest today to unsmoked pancetta or salt pork. Ordinary smoked bacon will dominate the wine and the orange peel; if it is all you have, blanch it first.
The brandyA full cup of brandy added at the end is a large amount of raw spirit. Let the sauce simmer openly for several minutes after it goes in so the alcohol cooks off, or the finished dish tastes sharp and thin.
Onions and mushroomsThree dozen small onions means pearl or cipollini onions, browned separately in butter so they hold their shape. They and the mushrooms go in for the last stretch of cooking only; added at the start they collapse into the sauce.
HeatRanhofer's "cook slowly" means a bare simmer; he gives no vessel, lid or temperature, so hold it wherever your pot simmers steadily. Ninety minutes suits farmed venison; older wild animals may want two hours or more, and the meat should yield to a fork before the garnish goes in.
Finishing the sauceSkim the fat properly before the spirits go in, then reduce until the sauce coats a spoon. The lemon juice or vinegar is not optional seasoning — it is what keeps three cups of reduced red wine from tasting flat.

A Little History

Civet is one of the oldest surviving names in French cookery, traditionally traced to cive, an old word for onion, though that derivation is received tradition rather than documented fact. In its older farmhouse form a civet was thickened at the last moment with the animal's own blood; Ranhofer, cooking for Delmonico's in New York in the 1890s, instead builds the body with flour dredged over the meat at the start, which will not curdle in front of a customer. That The Epicurean devotes a whole section to venison and large game reflects an American table on which wild meat was still market fare, and the fact that roebuck is the animal named is a reminder that Ranhofer's frame of reference remained resolutely French even when his suppliers were not.