No. 2295

Hashed Lamb, Creole Style

Hachis d'Agneau a la Creole

Have one pound of lean, cold leg of lamb without skin, fat or sinews; chop it up finely and place it in a high saucepan in a bain-marie (Fig. 122) with a little brown sauce (No. 414), a few peeled and quartered tomatoes, fried in butter, some finely shredded green peppers and plenty of seasoning. Dress the whole in a rice border, made by boiling some rice in slightly salted water with some butter; when dry place it in a plain border mold (Fig. 139), liberally buttered, and set it in the oven covered over for ten minutes to dry more thoroughly. Invert it on the center of a dish, and dress the hash in the middle.

← No. 2294 Hashed Lamb a la Celestine-Baked Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2296 Hashed Lamb with Bananas →

For the Modern Kitchen

A leftover-lamb dish from Ranhofer's The Epicurean, written for a professional brigade that already had stock sauces and a rack of molds on hand. The two things it assumes you have — an espagnole and a ring mold of buttered rice — are the whole job; the hash itself takes minutes.

Brown sauce (No. 414)Ranhofer's cross-reference is to a classic espagnole: brown roux moistened with brown stock, simmered long and skimmed. A good jarred demi-glace loosened with stock, or a reduced brown lamb or beef stock thickened lightly, stands in. Use about half a cup for a pound of meat — enough to bind, not to drown.
Bain-marie, not a saucepan on the flameThe "high saucepan in a bain-marie" is a tall vessel set in a water bath, which is the hinge of the dish. Already-cooked lamb held over direct heat tightens and turns to string; gentle water-bath heat brings it up to serving temperature without cooking it a second time.
Chop, do not grindChopped finely with a knife means a small dice; the recipe gives no size, but about 1/4 inch works. Meat put through a grinder or a food processor turns pasty and the hash loses the texture the rice border is there to set off.
Green peppersIn American cookbooks of this period "green peppers" generally meant sweet bell peppers rather than chiles. "Finely shredded" is a fine julienne; soften them in butter with the tomatoes rather than adding them raw, or they stay squeaky.
TomatoesThe recipe asks only for peeled and quartered tomatoes; seeding them is optional. Two medium tomatoes suit a pound of meat. Fry them in butter until they collapse and give up their water, otherwise the hash goes soupy in the bain-marie.
The rice borderBoil about a cup of raw long-grain rice in salted water until quite soft, drain well, and stir through 2 tablespoons of butter; slightly overcooked, sticky rice packs and holds its shape better than fluffy rice. Press it hard into a generously buttered ring mold.
Oven for the mold"Set it in the oven covered over for ten minutes" is a drying step, not a baking one; the recipe gives no temperature, so a moderate oven is a safe reading, covered with foil or a plate. Let it sit a minute before inverting so the butter sets against the mold.
YieldA pound of cooked lamb with a cup of raw rice serves four as a lunch or supper course, two or three as a main.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially the house repertoire written down — over a thousand pages organized so a chef could find a use for everything, including yesterday's roast leg of lamb. That is what the run of "Hashed Lamb" entries in this section is: the same cold meat sent out a dozen different ways, à la Célestine, with bananas, and here à la Créole. In the French kitchen vocabulary of the period, "Creole" was shorthand for tomatoes, sweet peppers and rice, a set of associations drawn loosely from New Orleans and the French Caribbean rather than any particular dish, and it appears across Ranhofer's book attached to eggs, fish and poultry alike. The rice border is pure restaurant technique: a molded ring that turns a bowl of hash into a plated centerpiece, and lets the sauce pool where it belongs.