No. 753

Turtle Salpicon

Salpicon Tortue

For Fat.—Four ounces of truffles cut in three-sixteenth inch squares; ten ounces of the gelatinous part of calf's head cut in quarter inch squares, six of sweetbreads the same, and four of tongue also cut in three-sixteenth inch squares. Mix with a turtle sauce (No. 552).

For lean.—Four ounces of truffles cut in three-sixteenth inch squares, ten of green turtle cut in one-quarter inch squares, six of mushrooms cut in three-sixteenth inch squares, and four ounces of hard boiled egg-yolk quenelles, in the shape of small beads, a turtle sauce (No. 552) with tomatoes sauce (No. 549) prepared lean.

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For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A salpicon is a garnish of small, uniform dice bound in sauce, here in two versions — one for meat days, one for fish days. The lean version cannot be made now, and the notes below explain why, along with what the rest of the entry means.

Green turtle is off the tableThe lean salpicon is built on ten ounces of green turtle (Chelonia mydas). The species is listed under CITES and protected under national endangered-species law in the United States, the EU and most other jurisdictions; its meat cannot be legally bought, sold, imported or served. This is not a matter of technique — the central ingredient is unobtainable and its trade is a criminal offence.
The turtle sauce is a separate questionClassical sauce tortue is an Espagnole-based sauce finished with Madeira and the so-called turtle herbs — basil, marjoram, sage, savory, rosemary and the like — and need not contain turtle flesh itself. The precise composition of Ranhofer's No. 552 cannot be confirmed from this entry alone, but the name refers to the seasoning traditionally served with turtle, so the fat version's dependence on it is likely a flavour question rather than a legal one.
Calf's head and its gelatinous partThe fat version calls for ten ounces of the gelatinous portion of a cooked calf's head — customarily the skin and the gelatinous flesh, simmered until tender before dicing; the recipe itself specifies nothing beyond 'the gelatinous part'. It is a special order from a butcher in most places and is sold as part of the head or as prepared tête de veau, not as a supermarket item.
Reading the dice sizesThree-sixteenths of an inch is a scant 5 mm; a quarter inch is about 6 mm. The recipe distinguishes the two sizes deliberately — truffles and tongue at the smaller size, calf's head and sweetbreads at the larger — though it gives no reason for the choice. Cut from chilled, firm pieces or the dice will not hold their edges.
Egg-yolk quenellesThe "hard boiled egg-yolk quenelles, in the shape of small beads" are sieved cooked yolks bound to a paste, rolled tiny and poached or dried — a lean substitute for meat garnish on fast days, and one of the clearest signs of what the two versions were for.
Use a current recipeIf you want a salpicon of this kind, work from a modern recipe built on legal ingredients. Nothing here should be read as a route to reproducing the lean version.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this numbered garnish sits in a cross-referenced system where nothing stands alone — the salpicon points to a sauce, which points to a stock. The paired "for fat" and "for lean" versions reflect the Catholic fasting calendar still shaping restaurant menus in the period: on lean days meat was replaced, here by turtle, mushrooms and egg-yolk beads standing in for calf's head, sweetbreads and tongue. Green turtle was then a luxury staple of American public dining, shipped live from Florida and the Caribbean and kept in tanks at the great hotels; turtle soup was the ceremonial opener of civic banquets, and the demand documented in books like this one is part of why the species collapsed. The word salpicon comes into French from Spanish, where it refers to chopped meat, and by Ranhofer's day meant precisely this: uniform dice bound in a reduced sauce, used to fill croustades, vol-au-vents and timbales.