No. 701

Polpette Garnishing

Garniture de Polpettes

Pare well one pound of lean, raw mutton, then chop it up fine, also half a pound of pork fat or calf's udder. Mix well the mutton and udder together, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and add three whole eggs, then divide this into eighteen parts and with them make balls, roll them in flour, dip them in beaten egg and roll them once more in bread-crumbs, smooth neatly and fry them in clarified butter. Range them nicely around a remove.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A forcemeat ball breaded and fried in butter, meant as an edging for a large joint rather than a dish in its own right. Two of its terms and one of its ingredients need translating.

"A remove"In Ranhofer's service, the remove is the large roast or braised joint served as the course that removes the soup or fish. These balls are ranged around it on the platter as a border, so they should be uniform and small enough to read as garnish.
Calf's udderTétine de veau was a standard charcutier's fat: mild, pale, and firm when poached and chilled. It is not sold in the US and is hard to find elsewhere, though some French and Italian butchers still carry it. Ranhofer's own alternative, pork fat, is the practical choice backer, ground coarse and kept cold.
MuttonReal mutton — sheep over two years — is scarce; most "lamb" leg or shoulder is under a year and much milder. Boneless shoulder, trimmed of sinew, gives the closest texture and enough flavour to carry the nutmeg.
Fat ratioA pound of lean to half a pound of fat is a third fat by weight, which is right for a forcemeat and should not be cut back. Less fat and the balls fry dry and crumble out of the crust.
Three whole eggsThree eggs into 24 oz of meat makes a slack mixture that is hard to shape. Chop or grind everything very cold, mix briefly, then chill the mass at least an hour before dividing; flour your hands as you roll.
Frying in clarified butterClarified butter is used because the milk solids that would burn are gone; hold it at 340-350F. At lower heat the crumbs soak fat, at higher the butter darkens before the centres set. About 4-5 minutes turning, to 160F internal.
Season by testWith raw mutton and raw pork fat you cannot taste the mix. Fry a teaspoon of it flat in a pan, taste, and adjust the salt and nutmeg before breading eighteen balls.
YieldEighteen balls of roughly 1 1/3 oz of meat mixture each, more once the eggs and coating are counted, enough to border one large joint for eight to ten people. They do not reheat well; fry them as the roast rests.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its garnishing chapter is essentially a parts catalogue: dozens of interchangeable borders to be set around a joint at the moment of service. Polpette is the Italian word for meatball, and its appearance in a French-trained American kitchen reflects the habit of naming a garnish for whatever cuisine it was borrowed from, however loosely. The calf's udder is the period detail worth noticing. Nineteenth-century French charcuterie prized it as a neutral, firm white fat for quenelles and forcemeats, and it appears in a number of Ranhofer's recipes alongside more familiar pork fat, which the book itself names as a substitute; its disappearance from Western butchery over the twentieth century has quietly put a whole class of recipes out of reach as written.