No. 2281

Escalops of Fat Livers with Risot, Perigueux Sauce

Escalopes de Foies-Gras au Risot, Sauce Perigueux

Prepare three-quarters of a pound of Piedmontese rice into a risot (No. 739). Cut up the quarter of a fat liver cooked and cold into small escalops; put them in a sautoir with half as many cooked truffles also cut up; add three spoonfuls of Madeira sauce and as much melted meat glaze (No. 402). Keep the stew hot. Lastly finish the risot with fresh parmesan, fine butter, and prepared red pepper (No. 168). Pour half of this into a large buttered plain dome-shaped mold, press it well on the sides in such a way that a hollow is formed in the center; fill this with the foiesgras stew and cover with the remainder of the rice; keep it in a heater for seven to eight minutes, then turn it out on a dish, covering the bottom of it with a little Perigueux sauce (No. 517).

← No. 2280 Escalops of Fat Livers a la Rulli Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2282 Escalops of Lamb or Veal a la Habirshaw →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a larder of standing preparations, so the recipe is really an assembly job: risotto, a truffled foie gras ragout, and two sauces built from stock reductions. The hinge is the mold — the rice must be packed firmly enough against the sides to hold when turned out, or the whole thing collapses onto the sauce.

The cross-referencesEvery number sends you to another page of The Epicurean: No. 739 is the risotto, No. 402 meat glaze, No. 517 Perigueux sauce, No. 168 the seasoned red pepper. Without them the recipe is a sketch; expect to build a demi-glace or a good reduced veal stock before you begin.
Quantities"Three-quarters of a pound of Piedmontese rice" is about 1 2/3 cups of carnaroli or arborio, which will make more risotto than a quarter of a fat liver can fill. "The quarter of a fat liver" is perhaps 5-8 oz of cooked terrine or torchon depending on the size of the liver; the recipe gives no thickness for the escalops, only that they be small.
Cooked and cold liverThis is not raw foie gras seared to order. Ranhofer means a lobe already poached or cooked in a terrine and chilled firm, so it can be cut cleanly and only warmed through in the sauce. Raw foie gras cut this thin and stewed would simply melt into fat.
Madeira sauce and meat glaze"Three spoonfuls" of each is about 3 tablespoons. Meat glaze is stock reduced to a syrup — commercial demi-glace concentrate stands in acceptably; it is intensely salty, so hold back seasoning until the ragout is assembled.
Prepared red pepperNo. 168 is Ranhofer's own preparation of red pepper; plain cayenne, used sparingly, will stand in, giving a faint heat behind the parmesan rather than any pronounced spice.
Sautoir and heaterA sautoir is a straight-sided shallow pan. The "heater" is most likely a warming closet or plate warmer rather than a hot oven; Ranhofer gives no temperature. The seven to eight minutes are to set the mold and heat it evenly, so a very low oven or a bain-marie will serve the purpose better than strong heat, which would dry the rice.
UnmoldingButter the dome generously and pack the rice while it is still hot and sticky. Let it rest a minute out of the heater before inverting; run a thin knife around the rim first. Slack, soupy risotto will not hold the shape, so finish it stiffer than you would for a plated risotto.
YieldRanhofer gives no number of portions; the quantities suggest a dish for several diners as one course among many. Sauce the bottom of the dish under the dome rather than over it, as directed, or the Perigueux will run down the sides and soften the rice.
AvailabilityFoie gras production and sale is restricted in some jurisdictions; check locally. Fresh black truffles are seasonal and expensive, and preserved truffles in jars are a weaker but workable substitute here since they are heated in sauce rather than shaved raw.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for more than thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially the house repertoire written down — some three thousand numbered preparations, cross-referenced like an engineering manual. This dish is French haute cuisine transplanted whole: Perigueux sauce takes its name from Perigueux in the Dordogne, the market town at the center of France's black truffle and foie gras country, and by the nineteenth century the name signified any demi-glace finished with chopped truffle and Madeira. The risotto is the Italian element, and Ranhofer's specification of "Piedmontese rice" reflects a period when short-grain rice was imported by region rather than by cultivar name. Dishes like this one, molded, turned out and sauced at the last moment, belonged to the service à la russe that had displaced the older practice of setting everything on the table at once; each course arrived hot and composed, which is why the recipe spends its final sentences on the mold and the warming cupboard rather than on cooking anything.