Provençale (Stuffing for Côtelettes à la Provençale)

Farce Provençale pour côtelettes (garlic-and-cheese stuffing for Provençal cutlets) teaches the discipline of reduction. Finished Béchamel, the milk-and-roux mother sauce, must become a paste before the yolks and cheese arrive. If it remains merely thick sauce, it will seep from the cutlets; when the spatula opens a clean road across the pan and the mixture closes slowly behind it, you are ready.

The original formula assumed a saucier watching a broad vegetable pan and made a pint at a time. At home, a small heavy saucepan and a flexible spatula give you better control. This half batch keeps the proportions intact: one cup of Béchamel, two yolks, two ounces of cheese, and a restrained half-pea measure of garlic, enough for four cutlets. The broad pan and extra hands were brigade scaffolding; the reduction, liaison (yolk binding), and off-fire finish are the dish, so they stay.

Keep the liaison below a simmer. If the yolks begin to grain, pull the pan away, whisk hard, and strain the mixture while it is still warm. Ça se rattrape. Above all, judge the Béchamel reduction by the clean road left by your spatula, not by the clock; that is the step that decides the stuffing.