No. 2284

Escalops of Sweetbreads a la Careme

Escalopes de Ris de Veau a la Careme

Braise some unlarded sweetbreads; when cold cut them into slices three-eighths of an inch thick and shape them into rounds an inch and a quarter in diameter; add to them half their quantity of mushrooms sliced thick and a quarter as many sliced truffles, mix with an allemande sauce (No. 407), season correctly and dress inside a border of rice, prepared as in No. 737.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A cold-larder assembly dish: the sweetbreads are cooked and chilled in advance, cut to uniform rounds, then bound in a warm sauce at the last moment. Nearly all the work happens the day before.

The hinge: never boil the allemandeAllemande (No. 407) is a velouté finished with egg yolks, cream and lemon. Once the escalops go in, hold it below a simmer — around 160-175F — or the yolks curdle and the sauce breaks into grains.
Sweetbreads, start to finishAsk a butcher for veal heart sweetbreads, the compact lobe, rather than throat. Soak several hours in cold water changed often, blanch, peel away the membrane and fat, then press flat between two plates under a weight. Pressing is not called for here, but it makes the slices far easier to cut into clean rounds.
"Unlarded"Larded sweetbreads were common enough in this tradition that the word needed saying; here they are left plain because the pieces are sliced and sauced, and lardons would show as streaks. Braise them covered in a little stock with a mirepoix until just firm, and cool them in their liquid.
Cutting the escalopsThree-eighths of an inch is a hair under 1 cm; an inch and a quarter is about 3 cm. A plain round cutter does the job. Save the trimmings for a croquette or a stuffing — this recipe wastes a fair amount of an expensive cut.
ProportionsMushrooms at half the quantity of sweetbread; the truffle is 'a quarter as many', though the text leaves open whether that quarter is reckoned against the sweetbreads or the mushrooms. 'Sliced thick' is not defined. Sweat the mushrooms in butter first and drain them, or their water will thin the sauce.
TrufflesFresh black truffle is the intent and the cost is now prohibitive. Preserved truffle peelings or a small quantity of jarred truffle are honest substitutes; truffle oil is not, and will fight the egg-and-cream sauce.
The rice borderNo. 737 is the book's rice preparation for borders; a firm savoury rice cooked stiff enough to hold its shape is what is wanted. Any short-grain rice cooked stiff will do. Build the border on the serving dish first and spoon the escalops into the well.
YieldThe Epicurean gives none. As a rough guide, a pair of good veal sweetbreads should yield escalops enough for a small party at an entree course.

A Little History

The dish is a tribute name: Antonin Careme (1784-1833) shaped the grammar of French service that Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's, was still working in when he compiled The Epicurean in 1894. A dish styled a la Careme in a late nineteenth-century book can generally be read as signalling the formal register — a white sauce, a mould, a garnish of truffle — rather than a recipe Careme himself set down. The construction here is pure grande cuisine: a costly organ meat reduced to identical discs, an egg-thickened mother-sauce derivative, and an architectural rice border to hold it, all of it plated to be looked at as much as eaten. Sweetbreads were a luxury on American restaurant menus of the period and recur throughout Ranhofer's book, braised, larded, glazed and crumbed; the ring of rice, meanwhile, was one common solution before the age of the individual plated portion, since a bound ragout needed something to contain it on a platter carried around the dining room.