No. 2708

Kohl-Rabies, Housekeeper's Style

Choux Raves a la Menagere

Cut some medium-size kohl-rabies in four equal parts, or if very large, then in six or eight; peel and pare them into crescent olive form, obtaining about three pounds in all. Blanch these in boiling salted water, refresh and drain once more. Put six ounces of butter into a saucepan and when very hot and cooked to hazel-nut (No. 567) lay in the blanched kohl-rabies and toss them so they do not color; moisten with broth (No. 194a), let cook, reduce to a glaze and when serving dilute with a pint of bechamel sauce (No. 409), also adding three ounces of fresh butter, a very small lump at a time.

← No. 2707 Red Cabbage a la Montargis Cabbages & Greens No. 2709 Kohl-Rabies, Stuffed →

For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward glazed vegetable in the classic French manner, written in Ranhofer's shorthand of cross-references. Three of the four numbered notes matter: the browned butter, the broth and the b",

Beurre noisette"Cooked to hazel-nut" (No. 567) is butter melted and cooked until the milk solids turn nut-brown and it smells toasted. Take it off the heat the moment the colour arrives; from hazelnut to burnt is a matter of seconds.
The hinge: do not colour the kohlrabiThe butter is browned but the vegetable is not. Toss it in the hot butter only long enough to coat, then moisten immediately. Any real browning on the kohlrabi muddies the pale ivory finish the dish is built around.
"Peel and pare into crescent olive form"This is turning (tourné): trim each wedge into a smooth barrel or crescent about the size of a large olive, so all the pieces cook evenly. The three pounds is the weight after shaping, so start with appreciably more untrimmed kohlrabi; peeling and paring waste a good deal.
Blanch and refreshBoil in well-salted water until barely tender at the edge, about 5 minutes for olive-sized pieces, then plunge into cold water and drain. Refreshing stops the cooking and keeps the pieces firm enough to survive the glazing.
Broth No. 194aOne of Ranhofer's numbered broths; a light white stock (veal or chicken) is the sensible stand-in, and any good low-sodium chicken stock will do. Add just enough to come halfway up the vegetables; it is meant to reduce to a glaze, not to boil them a second time.
Béchamel and the finishing butterBéchamel and the finishing butter -- A pint of béchamel (No. 409) for 3 lb of vegetable makes a generously sauced dish; use a medium-bodied sauce, not a thick one, since the glaze will tighten it. The 3 oz of fresh butter goes in off the heat, a small piece at a time, whisked in — monter au beurre. Keep it below a boil once the butter is in.
Butter quantitySix ounces for browning plus three for finishing is generous by domestic standards. Halving the browning butter loses little at home; the browned butter is there for flavour, not volume.
YieldThree pounds of trimmed kohlrabi in this quantity of sauce serves eight to ten as a side dish.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete professional reference, which is why nearly every recipe leans on a numbered stock, sauce or preparation elsewhere in the book. À la ménagère — "housekeeper's style" — was a standing French menu term for a plain, homely treatment, though a pint of béchamel and nine ounces of butter show how relative "plain" was in a Delmonico's kitchen. Kohlrabi takes its name from Kohl, cabbage, and a second element meaning turnip (reaching German by way of Italian rapa); the French chou-rave says the same thing. It was familiar in nineteenth-century American markets largely through German and Central European growers, and Ranhofer gives it more than one entry here, including a stuffed version immediately following. The technique — blanch, glaze in reduced stock, finish with a mounted sauce — is a standard nineteenth-century French treatment applied to almost any root or stem vegetable, and it is still recognisable in professional kitchens.