No. 2275

Young Rabbit Cutlets a la Previllot

Cotelettes de Lapereaux a la Previllot

Take four very tender young rabbits, remove the hind part of them and cut them in two lengthways through the center, bone the thighs leaving on the leg bone; remove all the sinews, then season and stuff them with godiveau of rabbit (No. 84), made with the minion fillets and fillets, mixing into it some cooked fine herbs (No. 385); sew them up and shape them into cutlets, stiffen and color these lightly in butter on both sides, then set them under a light weight and when cold pull out the threads and pare them all alike into cutlet form; dip them in egg and bread-crumbs. Prepare a fumet (No. 397) with the rabbit parings; when ready to serve have some hot clarified butter in a sautoir, put in the cutlets and cook to a fine color; drain, wipe and trim the handles, dress and pour around a Previllot salpicon (No. 749), and serve the fumet separately, reduced with a little espagnole (No. 414).

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a larder of prepared bases on hand, so half this recipe lives in cross-references. Read it as an assembly job: the cutlet itself is straightforward, and the numbered components are what take the time.

The cross-referenced componentsGodiveau (No. 84) is a forcemeat of finely pounded meat, fat and egg, here made from the rabbit's own fillets; fine herbs (No. 385) is a cooked mixture of shallot, mushroom and parsley; fumet (No. 397) is a concentrated stock from the bones and trimmings; espagnole (No. 414) is the classic brown sauce; the Previllot salpicon (No. 749) is a garnish of small dice bound in sauce. None can be bought ready-made in an equivalent form, so budget a day or plan substitutions before starting.
What a "cutlet" means hereThere is no chop involved. The boned thigh is stuffed, sewn, and shaped so the retained leg bone protrudes as a handle, mimicking a lamb cutlet. Four rabbits give eight, which serves four as a main course or eight in a longer menu.
Minion filletsRanhofer's "minion fillets" are the two small strips lying under the saddle, the rabbit equivalent of filets mignons. With the larger loin fillets they go into the forcemeat, which is why the recipe uses whole rabbits rather than legs alone.
The pressing step is the hingeColouring the stuffed thighs in butter, then cooling them flat under a light weight, is what sets the forcemeat and lets you pare eight identical shapes. Skip it and the cutlets will not hold their outline through breading and frying. Chill them thoroughly, several hours or overnight, before pulling the threads.
Sautoir and clarified butterA sautoir is a straight-sided shallow pan; a wide skillet does the job. Clarified butter matters because the milk solids in whole butter will scorch and blacken the crumbs before the interior is heated through.
DonenessThe forcemeat is raw when the cutlets go into the pan, so they need to reach the centre, not merely brown. Farmed rabbit is safe at 160F throughout; the pan-fry alone may not get there on thick cutlets, in which case finish them in a 350F oven for a few minutes.
Sourcing"Very tender young rabbits" points to young animals of about 2 to 2 1/2 lb; farmed rabbit sold whole, often frozen, is the usual modern equivalent. Wild rabbit is leaner and tougher, and its stronger flavour sits less easily with this treatment.
ServingThe sauce goes around the dish, not over it, or the crumb coating softens. The reduced fumet is passed separately in a sauceboat.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some thirty years as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and the book is essentially the restaurant's working repertory set down in print, roughly 3,500 numbered recipes that refer to one another like a code. Dishes such as this one show the house style: a modest ingredient, rabbit, dismantled and rebuilt into something that looks like a more expensive cut, then given a proper name. Personal dedications of that kind, "a la Previllot" among them, were common nineteenth-century French practice, often honouring a patron, a colleague, or an occasion; in most cases the reference has gone unrecorded and the name survives only in the recipe. Rabbit was a comparatively cheap meat in this period, which makes its appearance among the Miscellaneous Entrées less a luxury than a demonstration of what technique could do with it.