No. 2282

Escalops of Lamb or Veal a la Habirshaw

Escalopes d'Agneau ou de Veau a la Habirshaw

Lift off the fillet from a loin of lamb or veal, remove all fat and sinews, cut it up into small slices three-sixteenths of an inch thick, flatten, pare and shape them into rounds; they should each weight one ounce after being trimmed; fry these in butter over a brisk fire, drain off the butter and add salt, pepper, minced cepes, meat glaze (No. 402), a spoonful of Madeira wine and chopped parsley. Cut some cucumbers across into an inch and a quarter thick slices, and remove from them pieces with a column tube an inch and a half in diameter, pare and take out the insides with a smaller tube, three-quarters of an inch in diameter; line a baking sheet with thin slices of fat pork, lay the cucumbers on top and fill in the insides with cooked fine herbs (No. 385), into which mix a little chicken quenelle forcemeat (No. 89); cover over with more slices of pork and cook them slowly in the oven; when the cucumbers are sufficiently done dress them in a circle which will form a border and fill the inside with the escalops.

← No. 2281 Escalops of Fat Livers with Risot, Perigueux Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2283 Escalops of Pheasants with Olives →

For the Modern Kitchen

A composed entrée in Ranhofer's characteristic style: two separate preparations built in advance and assembled at the last moment. The escalops take three or four minutes total, so everything else must be finished and hot before the pan goes on the fire.

The hinge: the escalops are a flash sautéAt three-sixteenths of an inch, flattened, a one-ounce round of lamb or veal fillet needs roughly a minute a side over high heat. The sauce is built in the same pan afterwards; the meat should not sit in it. Overcooked veal escalops turn grey and dry within a minute of being done.
CèpesBoletus edulis, sold now as porcini. Fresh are seasonal; dried porcini soaked in warm water for 20 minutes, squeezed and minced, work here, and the strained soaking liquid can go in with the Madeira.
Meat glaze (No. 402)Glace de viande — brown stock reduced until it sets to a firm jelly. A teaspoon or two is all this needs. Commercial demi-glace or a reduced veal stock substitutes; bouillon cubes do not, being mostly salt.
Column tubeA plain round cutter. The larger is 1½ inches, the smaller ¾ inch, so the cucumber cases end up with walls a little over a third of an inch thick.
Cooked fine herbs and quenelle forcemeatNo. 385 is a mixture of shallots and mushrooms sweated in butter with parsley; No. 89 is Ranhofer's chicken quenelle forcemeat, pounded raw breast bound with a panada (check the original number for the exact proportions). The forcemeat is there to bind the filling as it sets in the oven, so keep it cold until it goes in.
Slices of fat porkFatback or unsmoked barding fat, sliced thin. It bastes the cucumber and keeps it from drying — the top layer is a cover, not an ingredient, and is lifted off before serving. Thin-cut fatty pancetta will do if the smoke and cure are acceptable to you.
"Cook them slowly"No temperature is given; the cover is the second layer of pork fat. In a modern oven a slow setting, around 300F, until the cucumber is translucent and yields to a skewer — roughly 25 to 35 minutes depending on how thick the flesh is. Cucumber collapses if pushed further.
YieldRanhofer gives none. Figure three or four one-ounce escalops and two or three cucumber cases per person; a whole veal fillet from a loin will serve six to eight as a course in a long menu.

A Little History

Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) is the record of some thirty years at Delmonico's in New York, and a great many of its dishes carry personal names rather than those of places or techniques — Habirshaw among them, presumably a New York family connected with the house, though the book does not say so. The construction is typical of late-nineteenth-century plated garnishing: a ring of identical turned vegetable cases forming a border, the garnish heaped in the centre, everything cut to a stated diameter so that the plate reads as geometry. Hollowed and stuffed cucumber served hot appears in French cookery of the period and has largely dropped out of English-speaking kitchens since; so has the barding of delicate vegetables in pork fat, which did the work now done by a lid and a splash of stock.