No. 2262

Cutlets of Pheasant a la Reginald

Cotelettes de Faisan a la Reginald

Cut up a pound of the white meat of a cooked pheasant free of fat and skin into three-sixteenths inch squares, also four ounces of truffles; mingle these with reduced bechamel (No. 409) and meat glaze (No. 402), season properly and let get cold. Divide the preparation into one and three-quarters inch in diameter balls, roll and lengthen them on one end in the shape of a cutlet and lay them in bread-crumbs; then dip in beaten eggs and again in the bread-crumbs, flatten them down to half an inch in thickness and mold them into cutlet shaped bottomless molds; unmold and fry in very hot white fat or clarified butter, drain and trim with fancy favor frills (No. 10). Dress either in a circle or in a straight row, and serve at the same time a well buttered veloute sauce (No. 415), into which squeeze the juice of a lemon; strain it through a tammy and then add chopped parsley and small three-sixteenths of an inch pieces of cooked mushrooms and red beef tongue.

← No. 2261 Lobster Cutlets a la Shelley, or with Cream Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2263 Cutlets of Squabs a l'Albufera →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a croquette mixture moulded to look like a chop — the sort of trompe-l'oeil entrée Ranhofer built whole chapters around. The hinge is the binding: the panade must be stiff enough and cold enough to hold a shape in hot fat, or the cutlets burst.

The cross-referencesNo. 409 is béchamel, No. 402 a reduced meat glaze (glace de viande), No. 415 velouté. In practice: a thick béchamel cooked down until it mounds on the spoon, darkened and enriched with a spoonful of concentrated brown stock reduced to a syrup.
How thick is thick enoughThe béchamel should be reduced to about the consistency of stiff choux paste before the meat goes in. Chill the finished mixture at least four hours, ideally overnight; warm croquette forcemeat will not take a shape.
Three-sixteenths of an inchRoughly 5 mm. Ranhofer's fractions are exact on purpose — the dice should read as dice, not as paste, and the same size appears again in the garnish so the sauce echoes the filling.
The bottomless mouldsA cutlet-shaped ring used to press each croquette flat and true. A plain ring of suitable size, or simply careful shaping by hand between two palettes, gives the same result; the point is uniform half-inch thickness so the centre heats through before the crumb burns.
"Very hot white fat"White fat here means a rendered white frying fat such as leaf lard or clarified suet, valued for its neutral colour. Ranhofer gives no temperature; modern deep-frying practice for croquettes is around 360-375F. Clarified butter works but scorches sooner; keep it at the low end.
TrufflesFour ounces of truffle to a pound of meat, as specified here, is restaurant-scale rather than domestic. Fresh black truffle at that quantity is extravagant; preserved truffle peelings, or finely diced cooked cremini with a little truffle paste, carry the idea.
PheasantFarmed pheasant is lean and dries out fast. Poach or roast it gently and use only the breast, as directed; the legs are too sinewy for a fine dice and are better kept for stock.
The frillsNo. 10 is a paper cutlet frill, pushed onto the tapered end to complete the illusion of a bone. Purely decorative, and easily left off.
Sauce and tammyA tammy is a fine cloth strainer; a fine chinois or conical sieve does the job. Add the lemon juice and butter off the heat, and fold in the parsley, mushroom and tongue only at the last moment so the sauce stays pale.
YieldDivided into the 1 3/4 in balls specified, the mixture gives somewhere in the region of a dozen or more cutlets; any serving count is an estimate depending on how they are dressed.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the restaurant's repertoire, and its Miscellaneous Entrées chapter is full of dishes like this one: cooked meat, minced fine, bound in sauce and rebuilt into the shape of something it is not. The moulded croquette-as-cutlet was a staple of high service kitchens because it turned the remains of yesterday's roast game into a composed plate that could be breaded in advance and fried to order — economy dressed as luxury, with the paper frill standing in for the bone. The suffix "à la Reginald" follows the house habit of naming garnishes after patrons and occasions; many such names in the book commemorate diners whose identities are now unrecoverable, and no particular Reginald has been documented behind this one.