No. 700

Palate of Beef Garnishing a la Mancelle in Cases

Garniture de Palais de Boeuf a la Mancelle en Caisses

After the palates of beef (No. 1326) are cooked, put them under a weight to get cold, then cut out of them round pieces an inch in diameter, sufficient to have a pound. Set these into a saucepan with half a pound of mushrooms and four ounces of truffles both sliced and of the same diameter as the palates, add six gills of espagnole (No. 414), one of tomato sauce (No. 549), the juice of a lemon and one tablespoonful of meat glaze (No. 401). With this preparation fill some small china cases, or else oiled paper ones dried in the oven, dredge bread-crumbs over the tops, also grated parmesan cheese, pour on a little melted butter and set them in the oven to brown.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A garnish course from Ranhofer's The Epicurean, built on cross-references to other numbered recipes in the book. Read it as a small gratin of braised beef palate in a reduced brown sauce, filling roughly eight to ten individual cases.

Beef palate is the hingeThe palate is the tough, cartilaginous lining of the roof of the ox's mouth, and everything depends on cooking it long enough to become tender and faintly gelatinous before it is cut. The cross-referenced No. 1326 supplies that cooking; the usual treatment is to blanch the palate, scrape off the outer skin and braise it slowly until tender. Without that stage the discs stay rubbery no matter how good the sauce. It is a special order item from a halal, Latin American or Chinese butcher, sold as palate or paladar.
Pressing under a weightChilling the cooked palate flat under a plate and weight firms it so it can be cut cleanly into rounds an inch across. Skip this and the pieces tear.
GillsA gill is half a cup, so six gills of espagnole is three cups and one gill of tomato sauce is half a cup. That is a generous amount of sauce for a pound of palate; reduce it until it coats rather than pools, or the cases will overflow.
Espagnole and meat glazeEspagnole (No. 414) is the old brown mother sauce, built on brown roux and veal stock. A well-reduced brown veal or beef stock thickened lightly stands in for it. Meat glaze (No. 401) is simply stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold; a tablespoon of commercial demi-glace concentrate does the same work.
Truffles and mushroomsFour ounces of truffle is a nineteenth-century restaurant quantity and not a modern one. Cultivated mushrooms carry the dish; a small amount of truffle, or truffle trimmings, is enough for the aroma.
Paper casesThe "oiled paper ones dried in the oven" are homemade paper cases stiffened by baking before filling. Ovenproof ramekins or small gratin dishes are the practical substitute.
BrowningThe recipe says only to set the cases in the oven to brown, with no temperature given. A hot oven, around 425F for eight to ten minutes, or a few minutes under the broiler, will do it, since the filling goes in already hot and needs only to gratinate.
ServingThe recipe sits in the Garnishings chapter, and the small individual cases suggest it accompanied or preceded a larger dish rather than standing as a main course.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete working record of a great restaurant kitchen, and its "Garnishings" chapter is full of these small hot preparations meant to accompany or precede a larger dish. The name a la mancelle points to Le Mans and the province of Maine, and in French classical cookery it generally signals a garnish of truffles and chestnuts or truffles and mushrooms bound with a brown sauce. What is most telling here is the ingredient: beef palate was a standard item in a nineteenth-century kitchen that bought whole animals and expected to sell every part of them at a profit, and a chef could set a cook to the long blanching, scraping and braising it demands. Once restaurants began buying pre-cut primals, palate, muzzle and similar gelatinous cuts fell out of the repertoire in Europe and North America, though they remain everyday food in Mexico, the Levant and much of Asia.