No. 2286

Escalops of Young Hare a la Roederer, Garnished with Quenelles

Escalopes de Levraut a la Roederer, Garnies de Quenelles

Prepare the escalops in the following manner: raise the fillets and minion fillets from a young hare, remove all the sinews, and cut them up into escalops; fry in butter with sliced fresh truffles, drain off the butter and detach the glaze with white wine; slice some ham thinly, and from these remove small rounds with a tin tube, adding them to the other ingredients, then heat up the whole without boiling. Drain off the escalops, and dress in a circle of game quenelles (Fig. 75). Reduce the white wine with as much half-glaze sauce (No. 413), and when this becomes rich and succulent season properly, strain and pour it over the whole.

← No. 2285 Escalops of Kernel of Veal a l'Arnold Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2287 Fat Livers a la Toulousaine-Whole →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Ranhofer's escalops are a quick sauté dressed inside a ring of game quenelles, and almost everything that can go wrong goes wrong in the last two minutes. The saddle fillets of a young hare are as lean as tenderloin and will turn dry and livery if held over heat.

The hinge: heat without boilingOnce the ham, truffle and escalops go back together, the pan should be barely steaming. Boiling at this stage both toughens the meat and breaks the reduction you are about to build.
LevrautA leveret, a hare under a year old. The fillets and the minion fillets (the small strips lying under the saddle) from one animal yield only a small quantity of trimmed meat, so this is an entree for a couple of portions rather than a main dish; Ranhofer gives no weights. Rabbit loin is the usual stand-in and cooks even faster.
Cooking timeEscalops cut about 1/4 inch thick want roughly 45-60 seconds a side in hot butter. Ranhofer gives no time at all, as is usual throughout the book.
Half-glaze sauce (No. 413)Ranhofer's demi-glace, a reduced brown sauce/stock; some versions are finished with Madeira. A good jarred or homemade demi-glace works; if you use a lightly thickened reduced stock, expect to reduce it further to get the "rich and succulent" body he asks for.
The tin tubeA plain round cutter; the recipe specifies only "small rounds" and gives no size. The rounds are punched from thin slices of cooked ham for appearance; prosciutto cotto or a good boiled ham is closer to his ham than anything smoked and sweet.
TrufflesFresh sliced black truffle was a routine garnish in a New York luxury kitchen of the 1890s and is not now. Preserved truffle, or a few sautéed cremini with a spoonful of truffle juice added off the heat, keeps the intent without pretending to the same thing.
QuenellesGame forcemeat quenelles poached in salted water or stock, shaped between two spoons, about the size of a small egg. Poach at a bare tremble at around 175F; a rolling boil makes them burst. They can be poached ahead and reheated in a little stock.
AssemblyArrange the quenelles as a border on a hot platter, escalops in the centre with the truffle and ham, then strain the reduced wine and demi-glace over the whole at the last moment so the quenelles stay distinct.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's for some three decades, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertoire set down at length, which is why so many of its dishes carry the name of a patron, a singer or a wine house. Roederer is the Reims champagne firm, and the dedication tells you nothing about the method -- note that this dish uses only white wine, not champagne. Hare had a settled place in that repertoire because it came from the game dealer rather than the butcher and carried the prestige of European sporting cookery, while the surrounding ring of quenelles is classical French garnishing practice, a way of making a very small amount of prime meat furnish a full platter. The cross-references to numbered sauces and forcemeats are how the book works throughout: it assumes a kitchen with stock, demi-glace and forcemeat already standing, so the recipe itself need only describe the last few minutes.