No. 2626

Mignon Salad

Salade Mignonne

Pare four heads of endive or escarole that are not too large, suppress the outer leaves, and wipe the other well without washing them; cut either of these salads across in two parts, put the upper part of the leaves in a bowl, cut up the other half into large Juliennes, and season with salt, pepper and some fine oil. Cut in medium Julienne four peeled truffles cooked in wine, season them also with salt and oil, cut up the same as the truffles two breasts of chicken cooked in butter and lemon juice without attaining a color; let them get cold and lay them on a plate. Shell four hard-boiled eggs, rub the yolks through a sieve and set this in a bowl, diluting with some mayonnaise (No. 606), a good spoonful of mustard and a dash of vinegar; add one after the other, first the truffles, then the endives, and lastly the chicken breasts, all previously drained of their seasoning. Dress the salad in a salad bowl, and decorate the top with truffles, beetroot, gherkins and lobster coral.

← No. 2625 Chicken Salad, American Style—Chicken Mayonn Cooked Salads No. 2627 Chicken Salad with Vegetables →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already knows his house style, so the instructions are compressed and the cross-references do a lot of work. A few translations from the French-inflected English of 1894 make the method clear.

"Suppress" and "pare"Both are literal translations from French kitchen usage: supprimer means to discard, parer to trim. Strip off the coarse outer leaves and trim the root end; the greens are wiped, not washed, so the oil clings and the mayonnaise is not thinned by water.
Which endiveIn this book "endive" is most likely curly endive (frisée) and "escarole" its broad-leaved relative, not the pale Belgian chicons sold as endive in American markets today. Four heads is a large amount of volume but little weight.
JulienneMatchstick strips. The recipe distinguishes "large" Juliennes for the lower half of the endive from "medium" Julienne for the truffles and chicken, so the greens are cut the thicker of the two; the tender leaf tops go in whole.
Truffles cooked in wineThe recipe does not say which wine. Preserved truffles in a jar are the practical modern stand-in, and four of them is a costly proposition; a smaller quantity, or a few tablespoons of finely diced cooked mushroom with a little truffle in it, keeps the dish within reason.
The chicken"Without attaining a color" means gentle heat only, so the meat stays white against the black truffle. Cook the breasts through to 165F all the same, then cool them completely before cutting, or they will slacken the mayonnaise.
The dressingSieved hard-boiled yolks are the body of it; the mayonnaise (his No. 606, a standard oil-and-yolk emulsion) is added only to loosen them into a sauce, with mustard and vinegar for edge. Aim for something thick enough to coat, not pourable.
Drain before dressingEach element is seasoned separately with salt and oil, then drained before it meets the yolk sauce. Skipping the drain is the usual way this salad turns to soup in the bowl.
Lobster coralThe dark green roe of a hen lobster, which turns coral red on cooking; it was pressed through a sieve and scattered as a garnish. Absent a hen lobster, the decoration works with the beet and gherkin alone, or with a dusting of paprika for colour.
YieldNo serving count is given. As composed it fills a large salad bowl; six as a first course, or four as a lunch dish, is a reasonable estimate.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's account of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this salad shows the house at its most characteristic: truffle, breast of chicken, lobster coral and a yolk-thickened mayonnaise, assembled cold and built for the eye. Mignonne simply means dainty or neat, a name attached here to a small, finely cut preparation rather than to one fixed dish. The composed cooked salad of this kind belongs to a moment when American restaurant cooking of the first rank was frankly French in vocabulary and technique, and when the truffle was the shorthand for expense; note that the recipe sits between two chicken salads, one of them labelled "American Style."