No. 2595

Sweetbreads a la Mirabeau

Ris de Veau a la Mirabeau

Braise (No. 12) the sweetbreads first, and as soon as done put them in the press (Fig. 71) or under a light weight; cut them in two on their thickness; with a two inch in diameter pastry cutter cut out some round pieces, cover with blond chaudfroid (No. 596), and decorate each with a handsome rosette of very black truffles; cover over with half-set jelly, and range them on top of a macedoine salad (No. 2650), dressed with mayonnaise piled into a high dome; have a border of jelly croutons around, and serve tartar sauce (No. 631) separately.

← No. 2594 Sturgeon or Sterlet, Livonienne-Small Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2596 Terrine of Ducks' Liver a l'Aquitaine →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold buffet piece from Ranhofer's Epicurean, built entirely from cross-references. Nothing here is difficult, but almost every step depends on another recipe in the book, so the work is in the preparation before assembly.

Sweetbreads: the prep the recipe omitsRanhofer assumes you already know to soak the sweetbreads in several changes of cold water until the water runs clear, blanch them briefly, then trim the membrane and gristle. Skip that and the finished slices will be grey and speckled rather than pale ivory.
"Braise (No. 12)"That number refers to the braising method Ranhofer sets out earlier in the book, which the recipe assumes you will turn to. Sweetbreads braise gently until they yield to a skewer, roughly half an hour; the book gives no oven temperature or thermometer reading.
The pressFig. 71 is the press illustrated in the book; a sheet pan, a second pan on top and a few cans do the same job. Press the sweetbreads while they are still warm so they set into an even slab you can cut clean rounds from.
Blond chaud-froidNo. 596 is a velouté-based white sauce with aspic jelly stirred in, so it sets on contact. Coat the rounds when the sauce has thickened to the consistency of pouring cream and the rounds are thoroughly chilled, or it slides off in patches. Two thin coats beat one thick one.
Truffles and the jelly glazeThe "very black" truffle is a winter Perigord or a preserved truffle, sliced paper thin and cut with a small fancy cutter. "Half-set jelly" means aspic cooled to the point of syrup, just before it holds its shape; brush or spoon it over the decorated rounds and chill between coats.
Macédoine and croutonsMacedoine and croutons -- No. 2650 is a diced mixed-vegetable salad, typically carrot, turnip, green beans and peas, cooked separately and cooled, then bound with mayonnaise as the recipe directs. The "jelly croutons" are firm aspic cut into shapes, not bread.
Serving and yieldServing -- the recipe gives no quantities; how many 2-inch rounds you get depends on the size of the sweetbreads. The dome of macedoine and the tartar sauce (No. 631, a mayonnaise-based sauce of the capers-gherkin-herb type) carry the plate.
Hold it coldAspic-coated offal on a buffet is the one real risk in the dish. Assemble on a chilled platter, keep it below 40F until it goes out, and do not let it stand at room temperature for more than an hour or two.

A Little History

Sweetbreads, the thymus and pancreas of the calf, were a luxury item of the nineteenth-century American restaurant table, and Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's from 1862, gives dozens of preparations for them in The Epicurean (1894). This one appears not among the entrées but under garnishings for cold dishes, which tells you what it was for: a component of the elaborate cold buffet, coated in chaud-froid and glazed with aspic so it could sit on a decorated platter for the length of a supper without collapsing. The name à la Mirabeau is generally traced to the revolutionary orator Comte de Mirabeau and in classical French cookery usually signals anchovy, tarragon and olives; by Ranhofer's day such titles had loosened considerably, and here it marks little more than the truffle rosette and the formal presentation. The chaud-froid technique itself — a sauce loaded with gelatine, applied warm and served cold — was the backbone of grand cold cookery from Carême onward and fell out of fashion only when the mirrored buffet platter did.