No. 2824

Squash-Marrow-with Parmesan

Citrouille au Parmesan

Peel the squash and cut it into quarter-inch thick slices; from these remove twenty-four round pieces with an inch and a quarter diameter cutter; blanch, drain, and saute them in butter over a brisk fire, seasoning with salt and nutmeg; dress them in a circle, one overlapping the other, on a dish that is fit to be placed in the oven. Cut as much of the squash into five-eights of an inch squares, blanch by dropping them into boiling salted water, continuing the boiling process for fifteen minutes, then drain and fry them in butter, salt over, and lay them in the center of the circle; dredge grated parmesan cheese on top, pour on some butter, and color in a hot oven; strew chopped parsley over the surface, and when serving squeeze the juice of a lemon over the whole.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward gratin of sauteed squash finished under high heat with Parmesan. The only real skill is in the blanching, which Ranhofer overdoes for modern tastes.

What squash to useCitrouille is pumpkin, but Ranhofer wants flesh firm enough to hold a 1 1/4-inch punched round and a 5/8-inch dice. A dense winter squash — kabocha, red kuri, butternut neck, or a firm pie pumpkin — behaves far better than a large field pumpkin, which collapses into water and strings.
The blanching timesFifteen minutes in boiling salted water will reduce most modern squash to puree. Two to four minutes, until barely yielding at the edge, is enough; the dice still has a pan-fry and an oven blast ahead of it. The rounds should be blanched more briefly still, since they are thin and are sauteed afterward.
"A brisk fire" and "a hot oven"Brisk fire means high heat in the saute pan — the rounds should take color, not steam. For the finish, 450–475F on an upper rack, or straight under the broiler for two or three minutes until the Parmesan is spotted brown. The dish is already cooked; this step is only for color.
Cut the rounds firstPunch the twenty-four discs from the quarter-inch slices before you cube anything, and use the offcuts for the dice. Working the other way around leaves you short of intact slices.
Drain the squash dryBlanched squash carries a great deal of water. Drain it on a towel and let it steam off before it goes into the butter, or the pieces will stew grey instead of browning.
An ovenproof dish"A dish that is fit to be placed in the oven" means assemble and serve in the same vessel — a shallow gratin dish or a metal-handled skillet. The arrangement of overlapping rounds around a mounded center is meant to survive to the table.
Nutmeg and lemonSeason the rounds with salt and a light grating of nutmeg while they saute, not after. The lemon is squeezed at the table, off the heat, and is what keeps the butter and cheese from sitting heavy.
YieldThe recipe fixes only the twenty-four rounds; the quantity for the centre is left open ('as much of the squash'). As a rough working estimate, this makes a vegetable course for four to six, using something on the order of 2 lb of trimmed squash flesh.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertoire set down in numbered order — some three thousand entries, each assuming a brigade and a well-drilled garde-manger. This recipe shows the house style plainly: an ordinary American squash is put through the discipline of French garnish work, cut with a round cutter to a stated diameter, arranged in an overlapping ring, and given a Parmesan gratin. The French title, citrouille, covers pumpkin and the large field squashes generally; the vegetable was thoroughly American, but naming it in French and dressing it in a circle was what made it fit for a Delmonico's menu. The technique of dredging cheese, pouring over butter and browning quickly in a hot oven is the classic gratiner, and the finishing lemon squeezed at the table is a device Ranhofer uses repeatedly to cut richness in butter-heavy vegetable dishes.