No. 993

Varenikis—Polish Side Dish

Varenikis--Hors-d'Œuvre Polonais

The day before the varenikis are needed for use put some pot cheese in a cloth, wrap it up and tie with a string; lay it on a colander, place a weight on top and leave it without further pressure until the next day so that all the buttermilk drains off. Take it out of the cloth, put it in a mortar, seasoning with salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg, then pound well to have it a very smooth paste. Now add gradually two ounces of fresh butter then a heaping tablespoonful of marrow frangipane and as much cream cake paste (No. 132) and lastly four egg-yolks; continue to pound and mix until the paste is exceedingly smooth, then rub it through a sieve; lay it in a vessel and let rest in the ice-box. Prepare a raviole paste (No. 147) and after half an hour roll it very thin and from this cut out some strips; cover each band with a small part of the preparation the size and shape of a nut and form them into small rissoles the same as for ordinary rissoles (No. 161); lay each one as soon as prepared on a slightly floured tin and stand them in a cool place. Ten minutes before serving throw them into a saucepanful of lightly salted boiling water. As soon as poached drain them on a cloth and then arrange them in a silver dish; pour a few spoonsfuls of sweet cream over, serving more separately. In Russia they substitute melted butter for cream and serve sour cream apart.

MOLLUSKS and CRUSTACEANS.

THE QUAHAUG OR LITTLE NECK CLAMS (Lucines Orangees ou Clovis).

There are many kinds of these bivalves, but these of which we speak are greatly appreciated as an article of food. Small ones an inch to an inch and three-quarters in diameter are served raw, in the months of May, June, July and August, entirely replacing the oyster. Little neck clams are the most remarkable of their kind, their principal characteristic being the uniting to the hinge of cardinal and lateral teeth; beside these they possess three other teeth, two being diverging. They are far preferable to the large clams for all culinary preparations, being more tender, of a finer flavor and their taste less strong than the others.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's varenikis are dumplings of pressed fresh cheese in a thin egg pasta, enriched far beyond the usual pierogi filling. Two of the three components are cross-references to numbered recipes elsewhere in The Epicurean, so the page cannot be cooked from as it stands without substitutions.

Ignore the tail of the pageEverything from "MOLLUSKS and CRUSTACEANS" onward belongs to the following entry on little neck clams and has nothing to do with the dumplings. The recipe ends with the note about melted butter and sour cream in Russia.
Pot cheeseA fresh curd cheese, drier than cottage cheese. Farmer cheese or a well-drained dry curd cottage cheese is the closest thing now sold; whole-milk ricotta will work if it is drained overnight as directed. The liquid that drains off is essentially whey, though period writers often called it buttermilk.
Overnight pressing is not optionalA wet filling tears the pasta and leaks in the water. Aim for a curd that holds its shape and feels almost crumbly before pounding.
Marrow frangipaneRanhofer's frangipane is a thick flour-and-egg panada; the marrow version has poached beef marrow beaten into it. A heaping tablespoon of soft butter or of marrow poached out of a split beef bone and mashed will stand in, though the texture will be slightly looser.
Cream cake paste, No. 132Choux paste. A tablespoon of cooled, unsweetened pâte à choux is what the recipe wants, and its job is to keep the cheese filling light rather than dense.
Raviole paste, No. 147A stiff egg pasta dough. Any fresh pasta dough of about 100 g flour to one egg, rested half an hour and rolled to the thinnest setting, gives the same result.
Mortar and sieveA food processor does the pounding in a minute; the sieving afterward still matters, since a single lump of curd will show as a hard spot. This smoothness is the hinge of the dish.
Poaching time"Ten minutes before serving" is when to start, not how long to boil. The dumplings are done a minute or so after they rise to the surface, usually three to four minutes total; longer and the pasta goes slack and the filling weeps.
Yield and servingThe original gives no quantities, so any yield is a guess: starting from about a pound of drained cheese with the additions, expect somewhere near forty to fifty walnut-sized dumplings. Serve immediately with cream, or with melted butter and sour cream apart in the Russian manner.

A Little History

Varenyky are the Ukrainian filled dumpling (vareniki in Russian) that English-speaking cooks now generally meet under the Polish name pierogi, and cheese is among their common fillings; Ranhofer gave the dish a French label, hors-d'œuvre polonais. Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's and published The Epicurean in 1894, and his instinct here is thoroughly of that school: a peasant dumpling is rebuilt with choux paste, marrow and four egg yolks, sieved smooth, and sent out in a silver dish. The closing note that Russians use melted butter with sour cream apart is accurate to practice.