Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Chef
"He was a great gourmand. He always carried a little grater and a nutmeg to flavor the glasses of port he drank. He loved to talk about cooking and knew many rare recipes for making the most standard dishes, for in this, as in all else, Lautrec had a hatred of useless frills… He loved dishes which had been simmered slowly for hours and seasoned with perfect art." Paul Leclerq
This post came about indirectly from my picture of the day - one of Toulouse-Lautrec's. Whilst I was looking for a portrait or self-portrait of the man I came across a blog - Lost Past Remembered - which was all about Toulouse-Lautrec the cook. Do read it if you are interested in such things - this post is a sort of summary of what I found there.
For apparently Toulouse-Lautrec was a great cook. And some of his recipes survive. His friend, Maurice Joyant collected some of them which he then published. This was later translated into English and made more understandable and published in two different versions, The Art of Cuisine and Toulouse-Lautrec's Table - both of which are available on Amazon - and, doubtless, elsewhere too.
Toulouse-Lautrec was an aristocrat, from Albi - there is a museum dedicated to him there. So you would therefore think that he wouldn't have anything to do with the preparation of food but apparently the whole family was very definitely involved. Whilst they may not have actually done the cooking they certainly played a big hand in deciding what should be cooked and how. And Henri, as we know, when he lived in Paris frequented brothels and other such places. His friends and companions were from all walks of life and he apparently collected recipes from them too. And created imaginative cocktails. His translator, Genevieve Diego-Dortignac and his friend Maurice Joyant obviously had great admiration for his skill.
“Cuisine was linked with his artistic being” in a very singular organic way. Cooking was for him another facet of the art of living. He shared the flavors of his version of life as he saw, felt and lived it on paper, canvas and the plate with equal power." Genevieve Diego-Dortignac
“To bake a sole on a bed of tarragon, braise wild boar in sage, add wild thyme or thyme to a fricassee, fry parsley as an accompaniment to fish, cook bass or perch on charcoal with a stalk of fennel, grate horseradish on venison, mix savory with string beans a la crème…. These are the final touches that make the dishes ‘sing’" Maurice Joyant
So here is the recipe that this article was leading up to - it's said to be his masterpiece. Now I doubt that you will be able to use pigeon, so we are already abusing it, but it seems you can also make it with small chickens. I'm sorry - I'm feeling too lazy today to translate the English measurements into decimal ones.
YOUNG WILD PIGEON WITH OLIVES
Serves 4
4 wood pigeons (or Cornish hens or poussin) , 8 oz ground beef (lightly sautéed), 8 oz French Garlic Sausage (lightly sautéed, if it is not pre-cooked) or a mild pork/veal sausage, ¼ t of nutmeg, 1 t fresh marjoram and thyme (optional), 2 T Truffle butter or regular butter, 2 Qt chicken stock, ¼ c armagnac or cognac, 3 oz butter, ½ oz truffles (optional) , 3 shallots, 1 onion, 3 strips of smoky bacon, chopped, Bouquet garni, 10 oz green pitted olives, 1 t molasses
Take 4 pigeons and put a stuffing of sausage and meats and truffles (if you don’t have them use truffle butter or oil) seasoned with nutmeg, herbs and salt and pepper inside the little cavity. Put the truffle butter under the skins of the bird… take care for the skin is very fragile. Salt and pepper the birds.
Tie them up and let the pigeons brown in a heavy, shallow pan… mostly the bottom of the bird. Remove them and put the bacon, shallots and onion into a saucepan and sauté.
Add salt, pepper, a bouquet garni. Put in the pigeons back in the pan, and let them simmer gently for ½ an hour with the saucepan covered. Add some pitted green olives that have been well de-salted (I put them in a pan of water and boiled them, then let them sit in fresh water) and add the armagnac/cognac and cook for 10 more minutes.
Heat the broiler.
Let the birds braise well in the sauce and then remove the birds. Reduce the sauce. Take the molasses and a few tablespoons of the sauce and brush on the birds. Stick the birds under the broiler to brown for a few moments to give some color to the skin.
Serve the birds on a dish surrounded by the olives and the strained sauce that ought to be rich and thick. PS Wild rice with truffle butter is amazing with this dish!
I have a French cooking book by Maple de Toulouse-Lautrec, so I looked her up but she is not a blood relative. She merely married his nephew who was the Count.
You learn something every day.
