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Sweetbreads Braise, Czarina
Blanch six heart sweetbreads. Neatly trim them all round. Cut two ounces lean raw ham into thin strips one inch long; then with the aid of a larding needle carefully lard the top of the breads. Finely slice one small carrot, one small white onion, two branches celery, two branches parsley and one ounce larding pork. Place these articles in a sautoire with half ounce butter; lay the breads on top, sprinkle over a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper. Set the pan on the fire and nicely fry for six minutes. Pour in one gill white wine, then let reduce to almost a glaze. Pour in two gills hot broth. Cover the breads with a buttered paper, then set in the oven for thirty-five minutes. Remove, lift up the breads with a fork, lay on a baking dish, one beside another. Skim the fat from the surface of gravy. Heat in a small saucepan a tablespoon fresh butter, add six finely sliced, freshly peeled mushrooms and fry for five minutes, then mix in one ounce flour, pour in half gill cream and strain in the gravy of the sweetbreads; briskly mix until it comes to a boil; then add one egg yolk, sharply mix for one minute. Pour the sauce over the breads. Sprinkle a tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese over the breads. Set the dish in the oven to bake for ten minutes, or till a good golden colour. Remove and serve.
A Delmonico-style braise that finishes as a gratin. The one thing to control is the egg yolk at the end: it goes in off the heat, or the sauce breaks into curds under the broiler-hot oven.
- Gills and ouncesA gill is half a cup, so the wine is 1/2 cup, the broth 1 cup, the cream 1/4 cup. The ounces of ham, pork and flour are weights: 2 oz ham, 1 oz salt pork, 1 oz flour (about 3 1/2 tablespoons).
- Heart sweetbreadsThe "heart" sweetbread is the rounded, plumper lobe (the pancreatic sweetbread), firmer and neater than the ragged throat lobe. Six of them is a large quantity; you may have to order ahead.
- Blanching means more than a dipSoak the sweetbreads several hours in cold water, changing it until it runs clear, then bring gently to a simmer for 3-5 minutes, chill in ice water, and peel off the membrane. Press between two plates under a weight for an hour before trimming, or they will not slice cleanly.
- SautoireA straight-sided sauté pan wide enough to hold the sweetbreads in one layer, ovenproof, with a lid or the buttered paper standing in for one.
- Buttered paperA cartouche: a circle of parchment, buttered on one side, laid directly on the meat. It keeps the surface moist without steaming the braise into a stew, which is why the pan is not tightly covered.
- Oven temperatureFilippini names none. Use 325-350F for the 35-minute braise, then 400F for the ten-minute gratin, or run it briefly under the broiler for colour.
- Larding without a needleIf you have no larding needle, cut shallow slits in the top of each sweetbread with a paring knife and push the ham strips in. The point is seasoning and a little fat on the surface, not structural.
- The egg yolkBring the mushroom sauce to a boil to cook out the flour, then pull it off the heat, temper the yolk with a spoonful of hot sauce, and whisk it back in. Do not reboil.
- SaltA teaspoon of salt plus ham, salt pork, broth and Parmesan will read as very salty by current taste. Season lightly at the start and correct the sauce at the end.
The International Cook Book was published in 1906 by Alexander Filippini, long a chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it reads as a working record of what a grand American restaurant kitchen served under French names. Dishes tagged à la czarine or "Czarina" belong to a family of nineteenth-century garnishes that borrowed Russian court prestige, much as "Impériale" or "Royale" did elsewhere; in classical usage the name is attached to particular garnishes rather than to anything broadly Russian. Sweetbreads were prized offal rather than thrift offal: delicate, perishable, usually sold in pairs, and requiring the soaking, blanching and pressing that a restaurant brigade could do as a matter of course. The finish here, gratinated with Parmesan under a yolk-bound sauce, is a familiar restaurant device for turning a braise into something that could go to the table in its own dish.