No. 717

Puree of Garlic

Puree d'Ail

Peel half a pound of garlic; cook it in plenty of salted water in a covered vessel, then drain and wipe off the moisture. Fry it for a few minutes over a brisk fire in a pan, with two ounces of butter, season with salt and pepper, and take it off and pound it; mix in a few spoonfuls of good, consistent bechamel (No. 409), and set this puree into a saucepan; heat it well without boiling; just before serving stir in a piece of butter and a little melted glaze (No. 401).

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For the Modern Kitchen

A garnish purée in the French service sense: a spoonful set beside a roast or under a piece of meat, not a dish in itself. Half a pound of peeled garlic is roughly four or five large heads, about a hundred cloves, and the boiling is what makes that quantity edible.

The hinge: boil it properly, then keep it below a simmerRaw garlic at this volume is inedible; boiling in abundant salted water tempers the harsh sulphur compounds and leaves something sweeter and nuttier. At the other end, the finished puree is heated without boiling mainly so the butter stirred in at the last moment does not separate.
Peeling half a poundRanhofer assumed a kitchen brigade. A quick blanch of unpeeled cloves for thirty seconds loosens the skins, or use a food processor's pulse to crack them. Buy roughly 10-12 oz of whole heads to yield 8 oz peeled.
"Plenty of salted water" and how longNo time is given. Cloves are done when a knife slides through with no resistance and they are beginning to collapse, generally 20-30 minutes depending on size and age. Some cooks change the water once partway through for a milder result.
Brisk fireA brisk fire means high heat, but garlic already soft from boiling scorches fast. Medium-high, two or three minutes, moving it constantly, is enough to drive off water and take a little colour.
Pound itA mortar was the tool. A food mill or a few pulses in a processor gives much the same result. The recipe stops at pounding, though a pass through a drum sieve afterwards would give a smoother puree.
Béchamel No. 409"Good, consistent" means thick enough to hold its shape on a spoon, roughly a nappé sauce made with about 2 tablespoons each of butter and flour to a cup of milk. A few spoonfuls, added to bind rather than to loosen.
Glaze No. 401Ranhofer's glaze is meat stock reduced to a syrup that sets solid when cold. Commercial demi-glace concentrate or a well-reduced brown stock stands in; a teaspoon or two is plenty, and it makes the purée non-vegetarian.
YieldAbout a cup and a half of finished purée, enough as a garnish for eight to ten plates. It is intensely rich and was never meant to be eaten by the spoonful.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for most of three decades, and The Epicurean (1894) is the closest thing to a complete record of what a grand American restaurant of the period actually cooked. This purée sits in the garnishings chapter alongside game, kohlrabi, chestnut and lentil purées, all built the same way: cook the ingredient down, pound it, bind it with a mother sauce, finish with butter and glaze. That formula is pure Carême-descended French practice, and its presence here is a reminder that Delmonico's was a French kitchen operating in America. The garlic itself is worth noting: in 1894 New York it was still associated chiefly with immigrant and southern European cooking, and a half-pound of it in a book aimed at the Fifth Avenue trade is only palatable because the long boil turns it into something mild and sweet.