Chef Juliette
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Desirs de Mascotte
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1663, Desirs de Mascotte, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Désirs de Mascotte puts the whole finish in your wrist: tender cocks' kidneys, black truffle, and crisp croûtons bound in reduced demi-glace with cold butter, rolled off the heat until every surface gleams.
Main Dishes
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
Celebration
30 min
Active Time
15 min cook•45 min total
Yield4 servings
Désirs de Mascotte (Mascotte's desires, cocks' kidneys with black truffle and croûtons) teaches the quiet art of monter au beurre, binding cold butter into a finished sauce. The one true thing is this: the saucepan must leave the heat before the finishing butter enters. Keep it simmering and the gloss becomes grease; roll it off the heat and the sauce clings like satin.
The original assumed a saucier, a stockpot never off the fire, twenty-four impeccably fresh rognons de coq arriving from the poultry market, and another pair of hands frying croûtons at the final instant. For four people, sixteen kidneys preserve the proportion, with the original butter and croûton quantities reduced by one-third and four truffles becoming three small ones. A finished unsalted demi-glace, made ahead and frozen or bought from a serious butcher, replaces the perpetual stockpot; the croûtons are fried just before the kidneys rather than simultaneously. That concurrency was brigade scaffolding, so it goes. The five-to-six-minute cooking and the off-heat butter mounting are the dish, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
When it lands in a hot serving bowl, the kidneys should be just firm, the truffle dark and fragrant, and the croûtons edged in butter gold beneath a mahogany glaze. Have every component ready before the kidneys touch the beurre noisette, then remove the sauce from the heat before adding the final butter. That last movement decides everything.
Désirs de Mascotte belongs to the fancifully named repertoire of Parisian grand kitchens, where a small poultry delicacy became ceremonial through reduced demi-glace, black truffle, fried bread, and service in a silver timbale. Rognons de coq are not renal kidneys but a cock's testes, a highly perishable poultry-yard morsel whose freshness determines the dish. Its luxury comes from truffle and sauce, but its identity rests on minute cooking and immediate service, not on the silver vessel.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh cocks' kidneys (rognons de coq, the testes)
Quantity
16
cleaned, loose membrane removed, and patted very dry
cultured unsalted butter for the kidneys
Quantity
4 tablespoons (60 ml / 57 g)
fine sea salt
Quantity
3/4 teaspoon (3.75 ml / 4 g)
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml / 0.6 g)
cayenne pepper
Quantity
1/16 teaspoon (0.3 ml / 0.1 g)
fresh black winter truffles
Quantity
3 small (about 2 oz / 60 g)
cut into somewhat thick slices
finished unsalted veal demi-glace
Quantity
3/4 cup (180 ml / 190 g)
reduced to coating consistency
fine-crumb white bread
Quantity
8 rounds, each 2/3 inch (1.7 cm) across and 1/3 inch (8 mm) thick
cultured unsalted butter for the croûtons
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
very cold cultured unsalted butter
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g)
cut into small pieces
fresh lemon juice
Quantity
1/8 teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.6 g)
added drop by drop
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh cocks' kidneys (rognons de coq, the testes)cleaned, loose membrane removed, and patted very dry | 16 |
| cultured unsalted butter for the kidneys | 4 tablespoons (60 ml / 57 g) |
| fine sea salt | 3/4 teaspoon (3.75 ml / 4 g) |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml / 0.6 g) |
| cayenne pepper | 1/16 teaspoon (0.3 ml / 0.1 g) |
| fresh black winter trufflescut into somewhat thick slices | 3 small (about 2 oz / 60 g) |
| finished unsalted veal demi-glacereduced to coating consistency | 3/4 cup (180 ml / 190 g) |
| fine-crumb white bread | 8 rounds, each 2/3 inch (1.7 cm) across and 1/3 inch (8 mm) thick |
| cultured unsalted butter for the croûtons | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| very cold cultured unsalted buttercut into small pieces | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) |
| fresh lemon juiceadded drop by drop | 1/8 teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.6 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •12-inch (30 cm) heavy sauté pan
- •1 1/2-quart (1.4 L) saucepan
- •8-inch (20 cm) skillet for the Croûtons
- •Slotted spoon
- •Instant-read thermometer
- •1-quart (950 ml) silver-plated timbale or shallow heatproof serving bowl
Instructions
- 1
Set the whole service
Chill the finishing butter and place the serving timbale or bowl nearby. Shortly before serving, fill the bowl with very hot water so it will be ready to empty and dry. Slice the truffles, stamp out the bread rounds, measure every seasoning, and pat the kidneys dry without rinsing them. Once the butter browns, there is no useful pause, so complete the mise en place first.
Ask the poultry specialist to clean the rognons de coq. Remove only loose outer membrane at home; do not cut the small organs apart. - 2
Warm truffle and glaze
Put the finished demi-glace into a small saucepan and bring it to the barest simmer. It should nappe, coating the back of a spoon in a thin, even film; if it runs like stock, reduce it briefly before proceeding. Add the thick truffle slices and hold them over the lowest heat for 2 to 3 minutes, without boiling, while their perfume enters the sauce.
- 3
Fry the Croûtons
Melt the croûton butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the bread rounds and fry them on both sides until evenly butter-gold and crisp at the edges, about 2 minutes per side. Drain them on a rack or absorbent paper and leave them uncovered. The original kitchen fried these alongside the kidneys; doing them immediately beforehand gives one cook the same fresh result without pretending to have another pair of hands.
- 4
Cook in beurre noisette
Heat the larger sauté pan over medium-high heat and add the kidney butter. Let it foam, quiet, and turn beurre noisette, nut-brown butter, with a hazelnut aroma and brown specks under the foam. Add the dry kidneys in one layer, season at once with the salt, black pepper, and cayenne, then roll and toss them frequently for 5 to 6 minutes. They should be lightly bronzed, opaque throughout, and just firm; the largest should register 165°F (74°C) when checked sideways with an instant-read thermometer. If they release water and begin to stew, lift them out, boil the moisture away until the butter sizzles again, then return them only long enough to finish. Ça se rattrape. Drain the kidneys with a slotted spoon and leave the cooking butter behind, as the source directs.
- 5
Mount the sauce
Bring the truffled demi-glace back just to a bare simmer, then remove the saucepan completely from the heat. Add the drained kidneys, the croûtons, the cold finishing butter, and the lemon juice drop by drop. Monter au beurre means binding with butter off the heat: roll the saucepan gently in a circular motion until the butter disappears and the sauce becomes glossy. Do not whisk and do not return it to the burner. If butter beads on the surface, lift out the kidneys and croûtons, put 1 teaspoon of cold water in a cool saucepan, and roll the broken sauce into it one spoonful at a time until it binds; then return the solids. Ça se rattrape.
- 6
Serve without waiting
Empty and dry the heated timbale or serving bowl. Pour in the kidneys, truffle, croûtons, and every spoonful of sauce, arranging nothing more than the pan naturally gives you. Carry it straight to the table. The butter mounting cannot be held or reheated without losing its gloss, and the croûtons wait for no one. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Rognons de coq means a cock's testes in this preparation. Order them from a specialist poultry butcher or small producer and use them the day they arrive. Chicken livers, renal kidneys, and sweetbreads are different ingredients with different cooking needs; none reproduces this dish.
- •The measured demi-glace must be a finished sauce, not a spoonful of commercial concentrate. Cold, it should gel softly; hot, it should coat a spoon without becoming sticky. Choose an unsalted preparation because the final reduction concentrates every grain of salt.
- •Fresh black winter truffle is the source's intention. Outside its season, whole preserved black truffles are the honest classical-pantry answer; drain and slice them thickly, knowing their perfume will be gentler.
- •The kidneys must be truly dry before they enter the beurre noisette. Surface moisture turns frying into simmering and robs the butter of the nutty bronze character that carries the dish.
- •Pour an earthy red Burgundy or a mature red from the northern Rhône. The wine needs enough freshness for the butter and enough depth for truffle and demi-glace.
Advance Preparation
- •Prepare or obtain the finished unsalted demi-glace ahead and freeze it in measured portions. Thaw 3/4 cup in the refrigerator the day before serving.
- •Stamp out the bread rounds several hours ahead and leave them uncovered so their surfaces dry slightly; they will fry more crisply and absorb less butter.
- •Clean and trim the kidneys earlier on the day of cooking, then keep them covered at 40°F (4°C) or colder. Pat them dry only when the pans are ready.
- •Do not finish the assembled dish ahead. The mounted sauce loses its emulsion when reheated, the kidneys toughen, and the croûtons soften.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 120g)
Calories
320 calories
Total Fat
26 g
Saturated Fat
16 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
9 g
Cholesterol
255 mg
Sodium
470 mg
Total Carbohydrates
5 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
17 g
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