No. 2235

Cases of Sweetbreads a la Grammont

Caisses de Ris de Veau a la Grammont

Blanch and braise the sweetbreads as indicated in la Montebello (No. 1560), then put them in round rings under the pressure of a weight. Melt some butter; fry in it a little shallot, parsley, mushrooms and truffles, all finely chopped, season and moisten with Madeira wine; let fall to a half-glaze, then thicken with egg-yolks. Fill some cases half full of these herbs, lay the sweetbreads on top and cover each one with a slice of fat pork; place them in the oven, and when cooked remove the pork and drain; pour the stock over the sweetbreads; when cooked reduce to a half-glaze.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already knows the house method, so this entry is more an assembly note than a recipe. The two things it assumes you can do are braise and press a sweetbread, and bind a duxelles with yolks without scrambling it.

The hinge: the yolk bindingOnce the Madeira duxelles is reduced to a half-glaze, pull it off the heat before whisking in the yolks and let residual heat set them. Returning it to a direct flame after the yolks go in will curdle the mixture and it cannot be brought back.
Cross-reference to No. 1560The braising method is not on this page. In practice: soak the sweetbreads in several changes of cold water until pale, blanch briefly, refresh, peel away membrane and gristle, then braise on a bed of aromatics with stock and Madeira until just firm.
Pressing"Round rings under the pressure of a weight" means fitting the braised sweetbread into a ring mould and pressing it flat under a weighted plate as it cools and firms. This compacts the lobes so they slice cleanly and sit level in the case.
What a caisse isIn 1894 a caisse was an individual case of oiled and pleated stiff paper, or a small china or silver ramekin, baked and served in the same vessel. Small ovenproof ramekins are the direct equivalent; paper cases sold for baking will also work.
"Fat pork"This is unsmoked back fat or fresh fatback cut in thin sheets, used as a barding lid to keep the surface from drying. Unsmoked salt pork blanched to draw the salt is the usual substitute; bacon is not, as the smoke and cure will dominate.
OvenNo temperature is given, as is usual in this book. The cases only need to heat through and set, so a moderate oven, around 350F, for roughly 15 to 20 minutes is in the right range.
Half-glaze, twice"Half-glaze" here means reduced by half to a syrupy, coating consistency, not the compound sauce demi-glace. It is called for once in the duxelles and again in the finishing stock.
Sourcing and yieldVeal sweetbreads are the thymus (and, in some usage, the pancreas) of a calf and are ordered from a butcher rather than found on a shelf; a pair will fill roughly half a dozen small cases as a first course. Use them the day they arrive, or the day after at the latest.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its dedication names are a directory of the restaurant's world: presidents, financiers, visiting nobility, and the odd society hostess. Grammont is one of the older French aristocratic names, and Ranhofer, trained in Paris before he came to New York, may well have drawn on that register when he needed a title for a variation, though the reason for the name is a matter of inference rather than record. The dish itself is a piece of pure haute-cuisine grammar of the period: a braised and pressed sweetbread, a duxelles of shallot, mushroom and truffle bound with yolks, barded with pork fat and served in its own individual case. Sweetbreads were then a standard luxury entr he the caisse format, one sealed portion per diner, suited service he older practice of setting everything on the table at once.