No. 647

Brussels Garnishing

Garniture Bruxelloise

One pound of Brussells sprouts, blanched and cooked in consomme (No. 189). Half a pound of salt pork cut in slices and broiled. Half a pound of carrot balls three quarters of an inch in diameter, blanched, cooked in consomme (No. 189) and reduced to a glaze. Half a pound of small blanched onions braised and glazed. One pound of Chipolata sausages cut in two lengthwise. Dress all these garnishings in different groups around the remove, and serve separately a sauce-boat of half-glaze sauce (No. 413) with ham essence (No. 390) added.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is an assembly rather than a dish in itself: five separate garnishes cooked apart and arranged around a large roast or braise. Ranhofer assumes a kitchen with stock and sauce already on the stove, so the work is in the components.

What a "remove" isThe remove was the substantial meat course that replaced the soup or fish on the table — a braised beef, a roast saddle, a ham. This garnish is built around that centerpiece, not served alone. Figure it as accompaniment for six to eight people.
Consomme substitutionsNo. 189 is the consomme Ranhofer cross-references throughout the book. A good unsalted stock does the job; avoid anything heavily salted, since the carrots and onions are reduced down to a glaze and salt concentrates fast.
Reducing to a glazeThe carrots and onions are cooked in barely enough stock to cover, then the liquid is boiled away until it coats them in a shining syrup. Keep the pan shallow and shake rather than stir near the end, or the vegetables break up.
Carrot ballsThree-quarter-inch balls are cut with the larger end of a Parisienne (melon ball) scoop. Half a pound of finished balls means starting with roughly twice that weight in large, thick carrots.
ChipolataIn this period chipolata means a small, thin fresh pork sausage in a narrow casing. Any fresh breakfast-size pork sausage works. The recipe says only to split them in two lengthwise.
Salt porkSalt pork can be very salty. Blanch the slices in water for a few minutes before broiling, or the whole plate skews salty against the glazed vegetables.
Brussels sproutsBlanch briefly in salted water, then finish in the consomme only long enough to heat through. Sprouts held in liquid too long go grey and sulphurous.
The sauceNo. 413 is demi-glace; No. 390 is a reduction of ham trimmings and stock stirred into it. A good demi-glace or reduced brown sauce with a spoonful of ham-simmered stock added gives the same effect.
ArrangementThe instruction to dress the components "in different groups" is the point of the dish. Each garnish sits in its own bouquet around the meat rather than being tossed together, so the colors and glazes stay distinct.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) codified thirty-odd years of cooking at Delmonico's in New York, and its garnish section is essentially a catalogue of the classical French repertoire as it was practiced in an American grand restaurant. Garnitures named for cities and regions were a fixture of that repertoire: the name signals a fixed set of components a cook was expected to know by heart, so a menu could simply read "filet de boeuf a la bruxelloise" and the kitchen knew what to send out. Brussels sprouts carry the Belgian reference here — they are generally traced to the vicinity of Brussels, where they were being cultivated by the sixteenth century — and the chipolata, glazed onions and glazed root vegetables around them are the standard supporting cast of a nineteenth-century braise garnish. The cross-references to numbered consommes, sauces and essences show how the book was meant to work: a professional system in which no component is made from scratch at the moment it is needed.