No. 683

Marrow Fritters with Truffles Garnishing

Garniture de Beignets de Moelle aux Truffes

Cook in white veloute stock (No. 422) for ten minutes, six marrow bones cut in six inch lengths; let them get cold, then take out the inside marrow. Prepare a half-glaze, with an equal quantity of jelly, or simply put a gelatine leaf in the half-glaze, and to it add some chopped truffles; put a little of this half glaze into the bottom of timbale molds (No. 3, Fig. 137) set on top a piece of the marrow sufficient to fill it half, and over the marrow a slice of truffle, and again a piece of marrow, so as to fill the mold to within an eighth of an inch from the top; finish with some of the sauce, then unmold, and dip each one in beaten egg, roll in bread-crumbs, and fry, or else simply cover the marrow with an espagnole sauce (No. 414), containing chopped truffles, having it almost cold, then dip them in frying paste (No. 2, No. 137), and fry them a fine color; serve a half-glaze sauce separate (No. 413).

← No. 682 Marrow Fritters Garnishing Garnishings No. 684 Matelote Garnishings →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stock, demi-glace and truffles already standing by; stripped of its cross-references this is poached beef marrow set in aspic-thickened sauce, moulded, breaded and fried. Two things decide whether it works: temperature control at the poaching stage and thorough chilling before frying.

The hinge: keep everything cold until it hits the fatMarrow melts at little more than body heat, so the moulds must be set hard in the refrigerator and the breaded fritters fried straight from the cold. A fritter that has stood at room temperature will burst in the fat and empty itself.
Poach, do not boilThe recipe says only to cook the bones in white stock for ten minutes and gives no temperature; a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil is the sensible reading, since at a rolling boil the marrow renders out of the bone and leaves fat on the surface of the stock.
The bonesSix-inch lengths are longer than the short cross-cut sections usually sold as marrow bones; ask for centre-cut femur sawn crosswise. Yield varies a good deal with the bone, so judge the number of fritters by the marrow you actually recover.
Velouté stock, half-glaze, espagnoleVeloutã stock, half-glaze, espagnole -- Ranhofer calls No. 422 a 'white veloute stock'; whether that cross-reference is a plain white stock or the finished veloute, the marrow needs only a well-seasoned light liquid to poach in. 'Half-glaze' is his term for demi-glace, and espagnole is the brown mother sauce beneath it. Good reduced brown stock stands in for both.
Setting the sauceOne 'gelatine leaf' of the period is not a reliable measure, and modern leaves themselves vary by grade (roughly 1.7g to 3.3g each). Aim for a sauce that is firmly sliceable when cold but not rubbery, and test a spoonful in the refrigerator before filling the moulds.
Timbale mouldsThe moulds indicated (No. 3, Fig. 137) are small individual timbale or dariole cups. Line them with plastic film if you want a clean release; the recipe itself says only 'unmold'.
Frying paste versus crumbsRanhofer gives two finishes: egg-and-crumb, or a coating of frying paste. He specifies no temperature or time beyond 'fry a fine color'; ordinary deep-frying heat, around 350-375F, until the crust is set and coloured will do, and a longer fry risks the interior liquefying and leaking.
TrufflesBlack truffle is presumably what is meant, sliced thin for the centre and chopped into the sauce. Preserved truffle peelings carry far less aroma; if using them, add a spoonful of the juice to the demi-glace.
ServingThis is a garnish, not a course — two or three fritters set around a roast or a braised joint, with the half-glaze sauce passed separately. Serve within a minute or two of frying.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's summary of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its Garnishings chapter is essentially a parts catalogue: numbered components to be assembled around a joint or an entrée according to a French grammar that every reader of the book was assumed to know. Beef marrow held a place in that grammar that it has only lately recovered — poached and sliced onto steaks, folded into forcemeats, or, as here, set in jelly and fried into beignets. The doubled richness of marrow and truffle, and the labour of moulding each fritter by hand, mark this as restaurant work rather than household cooking. The reliance on numbered cross-references to stocks and sauces made elsewhere is characteristic of professional French writing of the period, and is the main reason pages like this read as fragments today.