No. 2750

Lentils with Bacon

Lentilles au Petit Sale

Soak a pound and a half of lentils for six hours, after picking and washing them in several waters; put them into a saucepan with half a pound of unsalted and blanched lean breast of bacon, some carrots, a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, an onion with one clove stuck in it, pepper, nutmeg and stock (No. 194a); boil, skim, and simmer until thoroughly done, and after removing the carrots, parsley, onion and pork, drain off the stock, toss the lentils in butter, and season with salt, pepper, chopped parsley and lemon juice, or they can be sauted with a little allemande sauce (No. 407). Dress and surround with well-pared slices of the bacon, and over this pour a little gravy (No. 404), then serve.

← No. 2749 Jerusalem Artichokes a la Salamander Beans, Peas & Lentils No. 2751 Lettuces Chopped with Croutons →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a brigade kitchen with a stockpot going and numbered mother sauces on hand; the dish underneath all that is lentils braised with salt pork. A few of his instructions no longer apply to the ingredients you can buy.

Petit salé, not baconPetit salé is lightly salt-cured pork belly or breast, not smoked bacon. Ranhofer's "unsalted and blanched" is ambiguous: it may render the French dessalé, the cure drawn out by blanching, or may simply call for fresh pork. Either way, a piece of unsmoked salt pork or fresh pork belly, simmered 5 minutes in water and drained, is the closest match. Smoked supermarket bacon will dominate the dish.
The six-hour soakModern lentils need no soaking at all, and soaked ones tend to blow apart. Pick over and rinse, then cook straight.
Which lentilUse a lentil that holds its shape — green Puy, Castelluccio, or ordinary brown lentils. Red and yellow split lentils collapse into purée and cannot be tossed in butter afterward.
Cooking timeRanhofer's "simmer until thoroughly done" probably meant an hour or more. Unsoaked green lentils are done in 25 to 40 minutes; the pork belly wants closer to an hour, so give it a head start in the stock before the lentils go in.
Salt at the endNote that no salt appears until the finish, after the stock is drained off; the seasoning is all done at the end, once the lentils are tender.
The referenced numbersNo. 194a appears to be a light meat or veal stock; any unsalted chicken or veal stock serves. No. 407, allemande, is a velouté finished with egg yolk, cream and lemon. No. 404 is presumably a reduced brown gravy or jus. Skipping both sauces and taking the butter-parsley-lemon finish gives a complete dish.
YieldA pound and a half of dry lentils is a great deal — roughly 8 to 10 servings as a course, with the pork carved into slices laid around the edge.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some thirty years at Delmonico's in New York, and the book is essentially a French professional's reference translated for an American kitchen — hence the cross-references to numbered stocks and sauces rather than self-contained instructions. Lentilles au petit salé is one of the plainest things in it: a French farmhouse and bistro standby in which cured pork and lentils cook together, the pork seasoning the pulses and the pulses catching the fat. The pairing is generally traced to the lentil-growing country of the Auvergne and Berry, where Puy lentils and home-cured pork were both staples. Ranhofer's contribution is the polish at the end — draining the cooking liquid, tossing the lentils in butter, lifting them with lemon and parsley, and dressing the sliced pork around the outside so that a peasant braise arrives as a plated garnish course.