No. 2388

Timbale of Sweetbreads, Modern-Large

Grosse Timbale de Ris de Veau a la Moderne

Butter a large oval mold as for timbale a la Parisian (No. 2382), allowing one quart for eight persons; decorate the bottom and sides with fanciful cuts of truffles, and hold these up with a thick layer of solid chicken quenelle forcemeat (No. 89.) Cut up in half-inch squares one pound of braised, unlarded sweetbreads that have been left to cool in their stock, also as much cooked lean ham. Put four ounces of butter into a sautoir with two ounces of onion cut in small one-eighth of an inch squares, and when done without browning add four ounces of minced fresh mushrooms; when these have evaporated their moisture add the sweetbreads and ham; season and moisten with two gills of Madeira; let the latter reduce entirely, then pour in some brown sauce (No. 414) and the sweetbread braise stock; reduce once more and transfer the whole to a dish to get cold. Fill the timbale mold with this preparation; spread a half inch thick layer of forcemeat on a sheet of buttered paper, having it the same size as the timbale, turn over the sheet to fasten the forcemeat to the forcemeat in the timbale; attach it well to the top; poach the timbale by placing it in boiling water that reaches halfway up; boil this and push the timbale into a slack oven for an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, or until the forcemeat be perfectly firm; remove the paper, unmold on a dish and pour around a Madeira sauce (No. 492), serving more of it in a sauce-boat.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A bain-marie timbale of the old school: a chicken forcemeat crust lining a mold, filled with a Madeira-scented salpicon of sweetbreads and ham. Nothing here is difficult, but the assembly is unforgiving of shortcuts, and the recipe assumes you have already read the several cross-referenced numbers it points to.

The hinge: the forcemeat liningThe quenelle forcemeat is the structure of the dish, not a garnish. Ranhofer specifies only a "thick layer" for the lining (the half-inch measure he gives is for the lid), so spread it evenly and press it firmly against the buttered mold with no gaps or air pockets, or the timbale may split and leak when unmolded. Chill the lined mold before filling.
Two gills of MadeiraA gill is half a cup, so two gills is one cup. Use a dry or medium-dry Madeira (Sercial or Verdelho); the sweet Malmsey styles sold for drinking will make the salpicon cloying once reduced.
"Slack oven"A slack oven is the cooler working range of a coal or wood range, usually reckoned somewhere in the region of 250-300F; no exact figure can be pinned to the term. The water bath should reach halfway up the mold and be brought to a boil on the stovetop first, as directed, then kept below a simmer in the oven.
When it is doneRanhofer gives no test but "perfectly firm." A skewer into the center should come out hot and clean; if you prefer a thermometer, 165F in the forcemeat is a safe modern target. The hour and a quarter to hour and a half he allows suits the quart mold; larger molds take longer.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow pan. Any wide skillet or saute pan works; you want surface area so the mushrooms release and evaporate their liquid rather than stewing.
SweetbreadsThe recipe assumes braised veal sweetbreads already prepared elsewhere in the book: soaked in cold water to draw the blood, blanched, trimmed of membrane and fat, pressed under a weight, then braised and cooled in their own stock. Cooling in the stock is what makes them cut cleanly into half-inch dice. Order them ahead from a butcher; supermarkets rarely stock them.
Truffles and the decorationThe "fanciful cuts" are thin slices of black truffle stamped into shapes and stuck to the buttered mold before lining. Black olive, blanched leek green or a whole-truffle substitute in slices will read the same visually at a fraction of the cost, though not on the palate.
YieldOne quart of mold serves eight as an entree course in the old sense, meaning a small dish among many. As a main course with the Madeira sauce, plan on four to five.
UnmoldingLet the timbale rest ten minutes out of the water bath before turning it out, then invert onto a warmed platter. Sauce around the base, never over the top, or the truffle pattern is lost.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and its 3,000-odd numbered recipes are cross-referenced like an encyclopedia precisely because the book was written for professional brigades rather than home cooks. A timbale in this sense is not the baked custard of later American cookbooks but a molded forcemeat case, from the Arabic-derived word for a drum, describing the shape of the mold. Veal sweetbreads were among the most prestigious items on a nineteenth-century menu, expensive, perishable, and requiring hours of soaking, blanching and pressing before cooking even began, which is why they appear here paired with truffle and Madeira. The label a la moderne is one Ranhofer uses loosely for dressed-up presentations of his own moment; there is nothing fixed about it, and it tells you more about the fashion for elaborate molded entrees in the Gilded Age dining room than about any particular regional tradition.