No. 698

Oysters, Mussels or Milts a la Villeroi Garnishing

Garniture d'Huitres de Moules ou de Laitances a la Villeroi

Blanch, drain and wipe thirty-six oysters; reduce an allemande sauce (No. 407), with the oyster liquor, adding two tablespoonfuls of cooked fine herbs, let get cold and coat the oysters with it, leave them till very cold, and then dip them into eggs and fry them a fine golden color. For mussels proceed the same, only first removing the black piece adhering to them; milts are to be cooked also the same.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A classic à la Villeroi treatment: cooked morsels sealed in a thick sauce, chilled until firm, then breaded and fried. Ranhofer writes it as a garnish for larger dishes, but it works as a course on its own.

The hinge: the sauce must set hardAllemande coating for Villeroi has to be reduced far thicker than a pouring sauce — stiff enough to hold a line when a spoon is drawn through it. Coat the oysters, spread them on an oiled tray and refrigerate until the jacket is cold and solid, at least two hours. If it is still soft, it will slide off in the fat.
Allemande sauce (No. 407)A velouté finished with an egg-yolk (and often cream) liaison and sharpened with lemon. Keep the heat gentle once the yolks are in and reduce it with the oyster liquor, or it may curdle.
Blanching the oystersPoach them in their own liquor only until the edges ruffle — under a minute. They will take more heat in the fryer, and an oyster held longer than that turns to rubber inside its coating.
"Dip them into eggs and fry"Ranhofer takes the crumbing as understood: beaten egg, then fine white breadcrumbs, patted on firmly all round. Bare egg on a sauce coating will not give the golden crust the recipe asks for.
FryingDeep fat at 360–375°F, a few at a time so the temperature holds. Two to three minutes gives colour without giving the sauce time to melt through the crust.
Fine herbsFines herbes is usually taken as parsley, chervil, tarragon and chives, chopped fine and sweated briefly in butter — "cooked" is deliberate, as raw herbs weep water into the sauce.
MusselsThe "black piece adhering to them" is the beard, or byssus. Steam the mussels open first, pull the beard, and strain and reduce that liquor into the sauce in place of the oyster liquor.
MiltsSoft roe, the sperm sacs of male fish. Sold in some fishmongers as soft roe or laitance; poach very gently, as they break apart easily.
YieldThirty-six pieces will garnish eight to ten plates, or serve four to six as a fried course with lemon and a sharp sauce.

A Little History

Sauce Villeroi — a velouté or allemande reduced until it will cling and set — is traditionally credited to the kitchens of the Villeroy family, the 17th- and 18th-century French marshals and courtiers, though as with most such attributions the link is culinary folklore rather than documented fact. The technique it names outlived the name's origins: by the time Charles Ranhofer compiled The Epicurean in 1894 out of three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, coating, chilling, crumbing and frying was standard workshop practice for turning small, soft, awkward items into something crisp that could stand upright on a platter. That is exactly the role it plays here, filed among the garnishings rather than the entrées. The inclusion of milts alongside oysters and mussels is a reminder of how much wider the American fish counter was then; soft roe was familiar enough to appear in such a list, though how commonly it was sold is harder to say.