No. 763

Semolino Tartlets

Tartelettes a la Semoule

Line some tartlet molds with fine paste (No. 135), cook in a pint and a half of bouillon (No. 187), half a pound of semolino, with two ounces of butter, the same of grated parmesan and two whole eggs, and fill the molds with this preparation, leaving an empty space in the center to fill in with a Columbian salpicon (No. 742), cover over with some semolino preparation, pour over some butter, bestrew grated parmesan on top and cook in a slow oven.

← No. 762 Polenta Tartlets Garnishings No. 764 Spinach Tartlets →

For the Modern Kitchen

A garnish-course tartlet from Ranhofer's cross-referenced system: three other numbered recipes have to be read before this one makes sense. The whole thing hangs on cooking the semolina stiff enough to hold a shape.

The hinge: cook the semolina thickHalf a pound of semolina to a pint and a half of bouillon is a deliberately stiff ratio — closer to polenta than porridge. Stir over low heat until the mass pulls away from the sides of the pan in one piece; if it is still pourable it will not hold the hollow you need for the filling.
Eggs off the heatBeat in the two whole eggs after the pan has come off the fire and cooled for a minute or two, along with the butter and cheese. Added to a boiling mass they will set in threads before they can bind anything.
SemolinoPlain durum semolina, the coarse pasta flour sold as semola or semolina — not semolina pudding mix and not the finer flour marked semola rimacinata, which turns pasty. Cream of Wheat is a workable stand-in in texture but is softer and cooks faster.
"A slow oven"300-325F. Everything in the tartlet is already cooked; the oven is only setting the pastry, melting the surface butter and browning the Parmesan.
Bouillon No. 187A cross-reference to one of Ranhofer's plain broths; a beef bouillon is the likely reading, though the composition is not given on this page. Any unsalted or lightly salted beef or chicken stock works; season cautiously, since two ounces of Parmesan brings its own salt.
Fine paste No. 135Ranhofer's foundation paste, i.e. a short lining pastry rather than a sweet crust; the exact composition sits in the cross-referenced recipe, not here. Line the molds, chill them, and blind-bake briefly; a slow oven will not crisp a raw shell under a wet filling.
Molds and quantitiesTartlet molds of the period were small, on the order of a couple of inches across. This quantity of semolina will fill a couple of dozen or more of them, which suits its role as a garnish rather than a course.
The salpiconA salpicon is small, even dice of cooked meat or vegetables bound in a thick sauce. It must be cold and stiff when it goes in, or it will bleed into the semolina and the layer on top will sink.
ServingServe hot, as a garnish set around a roast or braise, two or three to a plate. They will not reheat well a second time — the semolina firms into rubber.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete working system rather than a book of favourites, which is why this recipe is mostly a chain of numbers pointing elsewhere in the volume. Semolina tartlets belong to the section on garnishings — small starchy constructions arranged around a large joint to give a platter height and structure, in the manner of the French service Ranhofer had trained in before emigrating. The technique is the same one behind Italian gnocchi alla romana and the polenta tartlets that immediately precede this entry: a grain cooked stiff in stock, enriched with butter, cheese and egg, then set and shaped. The "Columbian" salpicon of No. 742 carries one of those occasion-sounding garnish names; the Columbian Exposition had closed in Chicago in 1893, though whether the two are connected is not something the book itself says.