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Escalopes of Venison, Chasseur
Procure a two-and-a-half-pound piece stale venison from the round, cut in twelve equal slices, season with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon black pepper. Thoroughly heat a tablespoon melted butter in a sautoire, arrange venison in pan one piece beside another, and briskly cook on fire for three minutes on each side. Lift up with a fork, dress on a hot dish, one overlapping another, add six finely chopped shallots to pan and fry for three minutes. Pour in a half gill white wine, add twelve finely sliced canned mushrooms, then let reduce to almost a glaze. Pour in one gill demi-glace, boil six minutes more, pour sauce over escalopes and serve.
A short, brisk sauté in the classic hunter's style. Two things need translating: the pan measures, and the cooking time, which will take lean venison well past where anyone wants it today.
- "Stale venison"This means hung and aged, not spoiled; game was commonly hung for some days to slacken the muscle. Farmed venison sold today has usually been aged already; buy a haunch or top round steak and use it as is.
- Cutting the escalopesTwelve slices from 2.5 lb gives roughly 3 oz each. Cut across the grain and flatten to about 1/4 inch between sheets of plastic so they cook through in the time given without seizing.
- SautoireA straight-sided sauté pan, wide and shallow. Any heavy skillet works, but you need enough surface to lay the slices out without touching; do it in two batches rather than crowding one pan.
- Timing is the hingeThree minutes a side will turn 1/4-inch venison grey and dry. Venison round has almost no intramuscular fat and is best at medium-rare, about 130F — that is closer to 60-90 seconds a side over high heat. Pull it while it still gives.
- A tablespoon of butter is not enoughFor twelve slices in a hot pan, allow 2-3 tablespoons, or butter with a little oil so it does not blacken before the meat colours.
- GillsA gill is 1/2 cup, so half a gill of white wine is 1/4 cup and one gill of demi-glace is 1/2 cup. Reduce the wine and shallots until syrupy before the demi-glace goes in.
- MushroomsCanned mushrooms were an everyday article in kitchens of the period. Use 6-8 oz of fresh cremini or button mushrooms, sliced and sautéed with the shallots until their water has gone, or the sauce will not reduce to a glaze.
- Demi-glaceA reduction of brown veal stock and espagnole. Commercial demi-glace concentrate is a fair substitute; a well-reduced beef or veal stock, thickened only by reduction, is better than a thickened gravy.
- Yield and servingFour to six as a main course. It wants something to catch the sauce — spätzle, buttered noodles or potato purée — and a chopped parsley or tarragon finish, which most chasseur formulas include.
Chasseur is French for hunter, and the sauce — shallots, mushrooms, white wine, brown sauce, usually a little tomato and tarragon — was a familiar treatment for game in the Escoffier era, though by the early twentieth century it was applied just as readily to chicken and veal. Escalope means a thin slice cut across the grain and beaten flat, a word related to the Italian scaloppine. Pairing the sauce with actual venison, as here, is the literal reading of the name, and the recipe's instruction to procure a "stale" piece from the round reflects a period when game often arrived in the kitchen whole and undressed and hanging was the cook's business rather than the butcher's. The reliance on canned mushrooms and a house demi-glace suggests a professional kitchen idiom written out for domestic readers: the fussy work is assumed to be already sitting in the larder.