À la Maréchale

À la Maréchale ("marshal-style" in French) is a method of food preparation in haute cuisine. Dishes à la Maréchale are made from tender pieces of meat, such as cutlets, escalopes, sweetbreads, or chicken breasts, which are treated à l'anglais ("English-style"), i.e. coated with eggs and breadcrumbs, and sautéed.^[1][2][3][4]

Varieties

Dishes à la Maréchale were created in France during the reign of Louis XIV.^[4] Numerous varieties of such dishes are described in 19th-century cookbooks. Jules Gouffé presents roebuck cutlets à la Maréchale^[5] and broiled sweetbreads à la Maréchale^[6] in The royal cookery book (1867). Charles Elmé Francatelli describes fish dishes in The Modern Cook (1859), such as turbot,^[7] salmon,^[8] brill,^[9] whiting,^[10] and soles à la Maréchale,^[11] as well as recipes for scollops of sweetbreads,^[12] cutlets of partridges,^[13] a rabbit à la Maréchale filled with duxelles^[14] and a fowl fillet à la Maréchale stuffed with truffles and herbs.^[15] A similar filet de poulets à la Maréchale with herbs and forcemeat is also found in La cuisine classique by Urbain Dubois (1868).^[16]

After the victory over Napoleon in 1814, dishes à la Maréchale were introduced to Russia.^[4] Rather elaborate varieties, usually involving grouse fillets, are found in several classical Russian cookbooks. One of the first such books, The Last Work by Gerasim Stepanov, proposes to combine grouse fillets and veal liver.^[17] Elena Molokhovets' A Gift to Young Housewives, the most successful Russian cookbook of the 19th century, has included since its first edition in 1861 a recipe for grouse à la Maréchale stuffed with madeira sauce with champignons and truffles.^[18] A similar variety of grouse cutlets à la maréchale with a quenelle and truffle stuffing is described in the textbook The Practical Fundamentals of the Cookery Art by Pelageya Alexandrova-Ignatieva published in the beginning of the 20th century.^[19]

August Escoffier notes in Le Guide Culinaire that the commonly used "English-style" coating in these dishes is an economical substitute for the original treatment with chopped truffles.^[1] While chicken suprême^[1] and cervelle de veau^[20] are prepared this way, other dishes à la Maréchale in his guide, such as tournedos^[21] and foie gras collops,^[22] are treated with truffles. A garnish of truffles and green asparagus tips is nowadays common for dishes à la Maréchale.^[2][23]

Similar dishes

Alexandrova-Ignatieva noted that côtelette de volaille, the precursor of chicken Kiev, is prepared basically in the same way, as grouse cutlets à la Maréchale, with chicken used instead of grouse.^[24]

References and notes

1. Escoffier (1907), p. 512.
2. Montagné (1938), p. 666.
3. Supertoinette. "À la Maréchale se dit de petites pièces de boucherie (côtes ou noisettes d'agneau, escalopes ou côtes de veau, ris de veau, suprêmes de volaille) panées à l'anglaise et sautées."
4. Pokhlyobkin (2006), Марешаль.
5. Gouffé (1867), p. 405 (in 1869 English translation). Roebuck cutlets à la Maréchale
6. Gouffé (1867), p. 352 (in 1869 English translation). Broiled sweetbreads à la Maréchale
7. Francatelli (1859), p. 145. 404. Turbot à la Maréchale
8. Francatelli (1859), p. 149. 417. Salmon à la Maréchale
9. Francatelli (1859), p. 514. Fillets of brill à la Maréchale
10. Francatelli (1859), p. 169. 488. Fillets of whitings à la Maréchale
11. Francatelli (1859), p. 164. 471. Soles à la Maréchale
12. Francatelli (1859), p. 312. 911. Scollops of sweetbreads, à la Maréchale
13. Francatelli (1859), p. 366. 1089. Cutlets of partridges à la maitre d'hotel mentions that the cutlets can also be dressed à la Maréchale
14. Francatelli (1859), p. 357. 1060. Rabbit, à la Maréchale
15. Francatelli (1859), p. 337. 996. Fillets of fowls, à la Maréchale
16. Dubois (1868), p. 178. 976. Filets de poulets, à la Maréchale
17. Stepanov (1951), p. 6 (chapter 2). 5. Соус филеи марешаль на большом хрустате
18. Molokhovets (1861), 495. Марешаль из рябчиков; (1113. Марешаль из рябчиков in the 1901 edition; 863. Hazel grouse a la Maréchale in the English translation).
19. Alexandrova-Ignatieva (1909), p. 415. Котлеты марешаль из дичи
20. Escoffier (1907), p. 429. 1293 Cervelle à la Maréchale
21. Escoffier (1907), p. 370. 1104. Tournedos Maréchale
22. Escoffier (1907), p. 552. 1738 Escalopes de fois gras Maréchale
23. Renold (2012), p. 217. Suprême de volaille à la Maréchale
24. Alexandrova-Ignatieva (1909), p. 425. Côtelettes de volaille

Sources

• Пелагея Павловна Александрова-Игнатьева (1909). Практические основы кулинарного искусства. Санкт-Петербург. [Pelageya Alexandrova-Ignatieva (1909). The Practical Fundamentals of the Cookery Art (in Russian). St. Petersburg.]
• Urbain Dubois (1868). La cuisine classique: études pratiques, raisonnées et démonstratives de l'Ecole française appliquée au service à la russe (in French) (3 ed.). E. Dentu.
• Auguste Escoffier (1907). A Guide to Modern Cookery. London: W. Heinemann.
• Charles Elmé Francatelli (1859). The Modern Cook. reprinted by Applewood Books, 2008.
• Jules Gouffé (1867). Le livre de cuisine (in French). [English translation: Jules Gouffé (1869). The royal cookery book.]
• Елена Молоховец (1861). Подарок молодым хозяйкам (in Russian). Санкт-Петербург. A Gift to Young Housewives, English translation: Joyce Stetson Toomre (1998). Classic Russian Cooking: Elena Molokhovets' a Gift to Young Housewives. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253212108.
• Prosper Montagné (1938). Larousse Gastronomique (in French). Paris: Librarie Larousse.
• Вильям Похлебкин (2006). Кулинарный словарь. Москва: Центрполиграф. ISBN 5-227-00460-9. [William Pokhlyobkin (2006). Dictionary of Cookery (in Russian). Moscow: Centrpoligraf.]
• Edward Renold, David Foskett, John Fuller (2012). Chef's Compendium of Professional Recipes. Routledge. ISBN 9781136078620.
• Герасим Степанов (1851). Последний труд слепца-старца Герасима Степанова. Москва. [Gerasim Stepanov (1851). The last work (in Russian). Moscow.]
• "Maréchale (à la)". La glosssaire des termes de cuisine (in French). Supertoinette.com.