No. 2471

Cutlets of Lamb, Imperial

Cotelettes d'Agneau a l'Imperiale

Trim eight to ten lamb cutlets taken from the rib near the loin of two racks, four from each rack; suppress the chine bone and fibrous skin from the rib bones, pare them, leaving only the kernel on; beat this lightly, replace the fat by lamb quenelle forcemeat (No. 92) so as to give them their original shape, season and fry on both sides in butter; when done drain on a baking sheet and cover with buttered paper, then set them under a light weight to cool; pare them once more. Put into a saucepan a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce (No. 549), strained through a tammy, and dilute it slowly with brown chaudfroid sauce (No. 594); thicken this lightly on ice, remove and dip the cutlets into it one by one, covering them entirely; range them at once on a tray and keep in a cool place to harden the sauce. Detach the cutlets from the sheet, free them of all surplus sauce and trim the handles with fancy favor frills (No. 10); dress in a circle, filling the center with whole asparagus tops seasoned with salt and pepper and dressed with jellied mayonnaise (No. 613); cover the tops of the asparagus with glazed truffles cut in slices, surround the meats with chopped jelly and place around a border of jelly croutons.

← No. 2470 Cream of Lobster The Cold Service No. 2472 Cutlets of Lambs' Kernels in Bellevue →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

This is a set piece from the cold buffet, and almost none of it can be cooked from the page alone: five of the components are cross-references to other numbered recipes in Ranhofer's book. Read it as an assembly plan rather than a recipe, and everything falls into place.

The hinge: the sauce must be at coating consistency"Thicken this lightly on ice" means stirring the chaudfroid over an ice bath until it just naps the back of a spoon, then dipping immediately. Too warm and it runs off the cutlet in streaks; too cool and it sets in lumps. Expect to rewarm and re-chill the bowl several times through the batch.
What the cross-references areNo. 92 is a lamb quenelle forcemeat (quenelle forcemeats of this period are generally pounded meat with a panada and egg); No. 549 a tomato sauce; No. 594 a brown chaudfroid, essentially demi-glace with dissolved aspic; No. 613 a mayonnaise set with gelatin; No. 10 the paper cutlet frills. Without those you are substituting throughout, and the proportions of gelatin in the chaudfroid are the part that matters most.
Butchery vocabulary"Suppress the chine bone" is remove it. The "kernel" is the eye of meat on the rib; the fat is cut away and its bulk rebuilt with forcemeat so the cutlet keeps its silhouette. Frenching the bone and scraping it clean is the first "pare them" step; after pressing, the cutlet is pared once more to true up its shape before dipping.
TammyA tammy is a fine worsted straining cloth, worked by twisting between two people. A chinois lined with muslin, or a fine conical sieve pressed with a ladle, gives the same glass-smooth tomato sauce.
Press and chill before glazingButtered paper and a light weight while cooling flattens the cutlets to an even thickness and squeezes out fat, so the chaudfroid sets in a smooth sheet. Skipping it gives a lumpy, streaked coating. Chill thoroughly; the cutlets must be cold, not cool, or the sauce will slide.
Glazed truffles"Glazed" here means brushed with clear aspic, not sugar. Sliced black truffle brushed with melted, nearly set jelly holds its shine on the buffet.
Chopped jelly and croutonsBoth are clarified aspic: one set firm and chopped with a wet knife for a sparkling border, the other cut into neat triangles or crescents. They are decoration.
Yield and holdingEight to ten cutlets serve four or five as a cold entree. This is composed hours ahead and held refrigerated; a gelatin-coated cold meat left standing at room temperature is on the clock, so bring it out at service and return leftovers to the cold promptly.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some thirty years running the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and the cold service chapters are the clearest surviving record of what an American grand-restaurant buffet looked like in that period: everything masked in chaudfroid, everything glazed with aspic, everything set in a circle with a garnished center. Chaudfroid itself -- literally "hot-cold," a sauce made hot and served set and cold -- is traditionally traced to eighteenth-century French practice and was codified into the elaborate form seen here during the nineteenth century, when clear gelatin from long-simmered veal stock was one of the surest displays of a kitchen's technical reach. The suffix a l'Imperiale is menu language rather than a fixed formula, signalling luxury garnish -- here truffle and asparagus tops -- in the same way that dishes were tagged Royale or Impératrice. That a cook would bone, rebuild with forcemeat, fry, press, chill, dip and pare a single lamb cutlet twice says most of what needs saying about the labor supply behind a Delmonico's banquet.