No. 690

Moril and Girolle Garnishing

Garniture de Morilles ou de Girolles

Wash in several waters one pound of morils; cut off half of their stalks, then throw them into boiling water, and leave them to soak awhile; change the water, then drain them by lifting them up with the hand and laying them on a sieve, afterward saute them in four ounces of butter, adding the juice of a lemon, and let them cook for ten minutes. Moisten them with one pint of consomme (No 189), adding a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and a bay leaf; boil the whole for twenty minutes, then suppress the parsley and drain off the broth; now add some espagnole sauce (No. 414), and fine herbs, and reduce it to the consistency of a light sauce, to which add the morils and serve very hot.

Girolle.—Cut off the stalks from two pounds of girolles and then divide them into two or four pieces, according to their size. Wash well in several waters, then drain. Heat four ounces of butter in a sautoire, adding the girolles and some lemon juice; moisten with a pint of bouillon (No. 187,) season with salt and let boil slowly for a few moments, then drain and put them back into the saucepan. Reduce a pint of espagnole sauce (No. 414) with the clear part of the stock, add it to the girolles just when serving and finish the sauce with a little chicken glaze (No. 398) and two ounces of fresh butter.

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For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Two mushroom garnishes from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen, both built on a reduced brown sauce. The cross-references to numbered stocks and sauces assume a professional larder; the notes below cover what to substitute and what not to skip.

Morels are never served rareThe blanch in boiling water and the subsequent simmering are not fussiness. Raw and undercooked morels contain heat-labile compounds that cause gastric upset, and the honeycomb caps hold grit and insects. Keep the full cooking time.
Girolles are chanterellesThe golden, trumpet-shaped Cantharellus. Unlike morels they are not blanched here, only washed and drained, then stewed in butter and bouillon. Two pounds of fresh chanterelles cook down considerably.
Espagnole and the stocksNo. 414 is the classic brown sauce of veal stock, brown roux and mirepoix. A good reduced veal or beef demi-glace stands in. Consommé (No. 189) and bouillon (No. 187) can both be a decent unsalted brown stock; season at the end, since everything here reduces.
Chicken glazeNo. 398 is chicken stock reduced to a syrupy glace. A tablespoon of commercial glace de volaille, or your own stock boiled down to a coating consistency, gives the same gloss and body.
SautoireA straight-sided sauté pan, wide enough to hold the mushrooms in a shallow layer. Crowding steams them; use the widest pan you have, or work in two batches.
Washing mushroomsMorels genuinely need several changes of water, and lifting them out by hand rather than pouring off is the point of the instruction — the grit settles and should stay behind. The recipe calls for several waters for the girolles too; wash them and drain them well.
Finishing butterThe two ounces of fresh butter beaten into the chanterelle sauce at the end must go in off the heat, or just barely on it. Boiling after that will split the emulsion and leave a greasy sauce.
QuantitiesThe recipe gives no yield. A pound of morels or two pounds of chanterelles finished this way was intended as a garnish in the nineteenth-century sense — a spoonful alongside a roast, a filet, or poultry, not a dish in its own right.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book is organised as a working reference for a large brigade rather than a household manual — hence the numbered cross-references to sauces and stocks kept standing in the kitchen. Garnishes occupy their own chapter because in the service style of the period a dish was often named for its garnish as much as for its main element. Morels and chanterelles were both largely wild-gathered and seasonal; chanterelles are still not cultivated commercially, and their appearance on a Delmonico's menu signalled expense. The pairing with espagnole rather than cream is characteristic of the French classical school Ranhofer trained in, where a brown sauce carried the mushroom to a roast and a white one would have gone with poached poultry or veal.