No. 669

French Garnishing

Garniture a la Francaise

Twenty-four pieces of truffles, the size and shape of a crescent olive, in a good half-glaze sauce (No. 413) with Madeira. Six ounces of cooked cock's-combs and four ounces of cooked cock's-kidneys. Twenty-four small mushroom heads, turned (No. 118), sauted, drained and rolled in meat glaze (No. 401) and fresh butter, twenty-four pieces of small chicken quenelles (No. 89) poached in a small pointed mold decorated with truffles, twenty-four crawfish tails, shelled and sauted in butter, seasoned with salt, lemon juice, chopped parsley, meat glaze (No. 401) and fresh butter. A French sauce (No. 467), to be served separately.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is not a dish but a garnish set — five separate components assembled around a roast, poultry or vol-au-vent, with a sauce passed at table. Ranhofer's numbered cross-references mean each element is its own preparation; read them all before starting.

What the numbers meanNo. 413 is Ranhofer's half-glaze, i.e. demi-glace; No. 401 is meat glaze, stock reduced to a syrupy glace de viande; No. 89 is his forcemeat for quenelles; No. 118 is the technique for turning mushrooms; No. 467 is sauce à la française. Nothing here is self-contained.
Cock's combs and kidneysCrêtes et rognons de coq. The "kidneys" are in fact the testicles, and neither item is stocked by ordinary butchers now. Combs require long soaking, blanching, peeling of the outer skin and gentle poaching in a white braise before they reach the state Ranhofer calls "cooked."
Truffle shapes"The size and shape of a crescent olive" means cut from a whole black truffle with a small cutter or paring knife into curved segments of roughly olive size. Twenty-four such pieces implies a truffle of real size; canned or preserved truffle peelings will not hold the shape.
Crawfish tailsRanhofer means freshwater crayfish. Cooked and shelled crayfish tails or small shrimp stand in. They need only seconds in hot butter; the recipe does not specify when the seasoning, lemon, parsley, glaze and butter go in, but adding them off the heat leaves the glaze as a coating rather than frying it.
QuenellesThe "small pointed mold decorated with truffles" is lined with truffle before the forcemeat goes in. Poach at a bare tremble, well below a boil; a boil will make the forcemeat swell and break.
Assembly and yieldTwenty-four of each element would allow two pieces per plate for twelve, though Ranhofer states no yield. Everything is finished separately and arranged in groups around the main item at the last moment, with the sauce in a boat.
Keeping it hotFive components finished in butter and glaze will congeal if held. Have the main roast rested and the platter warmed before you begin the final sautés, and dress the garnish in the order given so the crayfish, which suffer most from waiting, go on last.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years cooking at Delmonico's in New York, and the garnishing chapter shows how closely that kitchen followed the French grande cuisine of Carême and his successors. A garniture à la française of this type — truffles, cocks' combs and kidneys, turned mushrooms, quenelles and crayfish — draws on the same set of luxuries that turns up under names like financière and toulouse, varied by the sauce that accompanies it. Combs and cocks' kidneys were prized for texture rather than flavour, and their near-total disappearance from Western menus over the twentieth century is one of the sharpest breaks between this book's world and a modern kitchen. Ranhofer's numbering system let him build these compositions economically: the reader is expected to have demi-glace and meat glaze already standing in the larder.