No. 2266

Cutlets of Squabs a la de Luynes

Cotelettes de Pigeonneaux a la de Luynes

Prepare the cutlets the same as for the Lauriston, only replace the forcemeat by a well-reduced allemande sauce (No. 407) with lemon juice added. Cover the cutlets with this and when cold dip them in eggs, roll in bread-crumbs, and fry in clarified butter; dish up and fill the hollow of the circle with asparagus tops. Serve separately a well-buttered half-glaze sauce (No. 413) into which mingle lemon juice and chopped parsley.

← No. 2265 Cutlets of Squabs a la Lauriston Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2267 Cutlets of Squabs a la Perigueux →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a cross-referenced entry in the manner of Ranhofer's whole book: almost nothing is spelled out, and three other numbers have to be read before you can start. What follows fills in what a nineteenth-century kitchen brigade already knew.

The hinge: the coating must be cold and firmThe reduced allemande acts as the binder that glues crumbs to meat, exactly as in a croquette. It has to be reduced until a spoon drawn through leaves a clean track, spread on the cutlets, then chilled until set — an hour or more, refrigerated — or it will slump off in the butter.
What you must look up firstNo. 2265 (Lauriston) gives the cutlet itself; note that this recipe works by replacing that recipe's forcemeat with the reduced allemande, so the shaping and cooking of the cutlet have to be read there. No. 407 is allemande, a velouté finished with an egg-yolk liaison; No. 413 is half-glaze, i.e. demi-glace. A good jarred or homemade demi-glace and a thick velouté-with-yolks will stand in.
SquabsSquab means a young pigeon of about 4 weeks, dressed weight 12-16 oz, sold frozen by game butchers and some Asian markets. Two boned breasts per bird; figure two birds per person for a first course of four cutlets. Do not substitute wood pigeon, which is far leaner and coarser.
Allemande with lemonAdd the lemon juice at the end, off the heat. Allemande is classically finished with lemon juice, but a yolk-bound sauce held over heat once the acid is in is more liable to break, and a broken coating will not set.
Clarified butter, and how hotClarified butter — milk solids removed — is what allows shallow frying without the black flecks whole butter gives. Half an inch in a heavy pan, hot but well short of smoking; the book gives no temperature. Turn once and fry only long enough to colour and crisp the crumb.
Dishing in a circleThe cutlets are dished in a ring on a round platter with the centre left empty — the recipe's "hollow of the circle." Blanched asparagus tips go in the hollow, drained hard so no water runs into the crumbs.
Well-buttered means monté au beurre: cold butter whisked into the hot demi-glace off the heat until glossy. Add lemon and parsley last and do not let it boil again or it will separate.
YieldYield is not stated in the original. The sauce is explicitly served separately, in a boat alongside rather than under the cutlets, which would soften the crust.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the method of the book plainly: a single squab cutlet preparation (No. 2265, Lauriston) is restated in a run of variations, each with a different coating, garnish or sauce and each carrying an aristocratic or place name. The de Luynes were a French ducal house, and as often with such titles in nineteenth-century menu French the label appears to signal prestige rather than any documented connection to the dish. What is genuinely of the period is the technique: squab was a common luxury bird in American markets, breasts were boned and shaped into imitation lamb cutlets, and a stiffly reduced sauce was used as the crumbing medium — a trick that reappears in croquettes and in cutlets à la Villeroi, where the coating sauce is itself an allemande derivative doing the same job.