No. 2541

Tenderloin of Mutton a la Henry Olay

Filets de Mouton a la Henry Clay

Raise the tenderloins from two saddles of mutton, and the sirloins or meats from four racks; remove the skin, pare and lard with medium lardons (No.3, Fig. 52); season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, fine herbs and shallots. Cover the bottom of a braziere with slices of fat pork, carrots, onions and a bunch of parsley, garnished with thyme, bay leaf and a clove; lay the fillets on top, moisten with stock (No. 194a) and Madeira wine, cover with buttered paper, then bring to a boil and set in the oven for one hour; when done lay them on a deep dish and strain the stock over; glaze and dress on a rice croustade, and garnish around with breasts of mutton in chaudfroid, prepared as follows: Braise the breasts, set them under a weight to cool, pare by removing the skin and fat, and then cut the meat into small half-hearts; cover their surfaces with foies-gras taken from a terrine, pounded and rubbed through a sieve; when cold mask them with chaudfroid made with the fillet and breast stock, and some poivrade (No. 523) added, and when cold pare and trim with fancy favors (No. 10). Dress them in a circle, one overlapping the other, around the rice socle, and outside of the breasts place chopped jelly surrounded by jelly croutons (No. 2442) cut very regular and dressed symmetrically. Serve at the same time a sauce-boat of printaniere mayonnaise (No. 612).

← No. 2540 Mousseline of Woodcock Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2542 Small "pains" of Capon with Tarragon →

For the Modern Kitchen

A Delmonico's buffet centerpiece: braised larded mutton fillets glazed and set on a rice socle, ringed with chaudfroid-masked breast meat. It is a two-day project, and most of the work is in the cold garnish rather than the roast.

The hinge: everything must be properly cold before maskingChaudfroid sets only on chilled, dry, degreased meat, and it must be spooned on when the sauce has cooled to the consistency of thick cream — barely flowing, not yet gelled. Warm meat or hot sauce gives a streaked, translucent coat that will slide off.'
Scale and yieldTwo saddles and four racks of mutton is banquet quantity, well beyond a domestic table, though Ranhofer gives no portion count. Two lamb loin fillets and one breast will reproduce the method on a much smaller scale.
Mutton and lambMutton means sheep over a year old, strongly flavored and firmer than lamb; it is sold in Britain and by specialist butchers but is rare in American markets. Lamb loin will work but cooks considerably faster and needs less braising time.
LardingLarding needles and firm back fat are specialist items now. Modern loin can be barded — wrapped in thin sheets of fatback or caul — which protects the meat during the hour in the oven without the labor of drawing lardons through it.
Braziere and buttered paperA braziere is simply a heavy lidded braising pan; a Dutch oven serves. The buttered paper is a cartouche laid directly on the meat to keep the surface from drying.
Oven temperatureRanhofer gives no oven temperature and uses no term for one; a moderate heat is the usual assumption for a covered braise of this kind. At an hour, larded mutton loin comes out well past pink, which suits a dish dressed and served cold.
GlazeTo "glaze" means to reduce the strained braising liquid to a syrupy meat glaze and brush it over the fillets, not to apply anything sweet. The recipe has the chaudfroid built on the same fillet and breast stock.
Rice croustade and socleBoth refer to the same thing here: a molded, tightly packed base of cooked rice used as a plinth. In nineteenth-century service the socle was structural and often not eaten. A shallow platter with a rim of aspic makes a more practical modern support.
Foies-gras from a terrineHe means cooked foie gras terrine, pounded smooth and sieved — a spreadable purée, not raw liver. Any smooth mousse-style foie gras or a fine chicken liver parfait gives the same effect.
Poivrade and printanière mayonnaisePoivrade and printaniere mayonnaise -- Poivrade is a peppery brown sauce sharpened with vinegar, added here to give the chaudfroid backbone. Printaniere mayonnaise is mayonnaise dressed in the spring style, with spring vegetables and herbs; the composition is in Ranhofer's cross-referenced No. 612 rather than on this page.
Holding timeThe assembled dish is a cold buffet piece and was meant to stand at room temperature during service. Keep it refrigerated and limit display to about two hours, particularly given the foie gras.

A Little History

The page title's "Henry Olay" is a scanning slip for Henry Clay, the Kentucky senator and Secretary of State — one of a long roll of American public figures whose names Charles Ranhofer attached to dishes at Delmonico's in New York. The Epicurean (1894) records some thirty years of that kitchen's output, and its cold-buffet section is the most elaborate part of the book: aspic, chaudfroid, sculpted socles of rice or lard, and jelly croutons cut to a set pattern were the ballroom-supper style of the period, when a dish was judged first by how it looked from across a room. Naming a mutton entrée for Clay is best understood as ordinary flattery; the practice was general in French-American restaurants of the era, and the honoree was often long dead.