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Cold Veal Loaf
Have the bone of a knuckle of veal sawed in three pieces at the market. Wash, wipe, and put in kettle with two pounds of lean veal, one onion sliced, six slices carrot, one blade celery broken in pieces, one spray parsley and one-half teaspoon peppercorns; cover with boiling water and cook slowly until meat is tender. Drain; chop meat finely and season well with salt, pepper and a few grains cayenne. Reduce liquor to one cup, strain and reserve. Garnish the bottom of a granite, brick-shaped bread pan with the white of "hard boiled" egg cut to resemble three daisies; put a dot of the yolk in center of each and arrange sprays of parsley between each daisy. Put a layer of meat, then a layer of thinly sliced eggs sprinkled with parsley, finely chopped. Cover with remaining meat; pour over strained liquor, press and let stand until cold and jellied. Remove to serving platter, garnish with parsley and small round radishes cut to resemble tulips. Slice thinly and serve with
A jellied veal loaf that sets on the natural gelatin from the sawn knuckle bone — no packet gelatin involved, provided the stock is reduced hard enough. The recipe is straightforward; most of the adaptation is in sourcing and chilling.
- The hinge: reduce the liquor properlyThe loaf sets only because the knuckle bone gives up gelatin and the cooking liquid is boiled down to a single cup. If your reduced cup does not set to a firm wobble when a spoonful is chilled on a saucer, reduce further or the loaf will collapse when turned out.
- Getting the boneAsk a butcher for a veal knuckle (the joint end of the leg) cut into three; supermarket meat counters rarely stock it. A split calf's foot is the closest substitute; veal breast bones will contribute some gelatin but less. Two pounds of lean shoulder or leg veal is the meat itself.
- "One blade celery"A blade here means a single stalk, not a leaf. A spray of parsley is a small sprig with its stem.
- Granite panGranite ware is speckled enamel over steel, common in 1900 kitchens. Any 8 x 4 inch loaf tin works; line it with plastic wrap so the decorated bottom lifts out intact.
- Cooking timeNo time is given. Expect two to three hours at a bare simmer — the surface should barely tremble. A hard boil clouds the stock and makes the finished jelly murky rather than clear.
- Chopping, not grinding"Chop meat finely" means knife-chopped to a coarse mince. A food processor turns cooked veal to paste and the loaf loses its texture; pulse very briefly if you use one.
- Pressing and chillingWeight the top with a second tin and a couple of cans. Chill in the refrigerator, not merely "until cold" on a counter — a cooked meat loaf sitting at room temperature for hours is the one point where period practice and modern food safety part ways. Overnight is best.
- Yield and servingTwo pounds of veal fills a standard loaf tin and gives roughly eight to ten thin slices — a lunch or supper dish for four to six. The text breaks off mid-sentence, so what it called for is unknown; a sharp mayonnaise, mustard sauce, or pickles and brown bread are all plausible accompaniments.
Cold moulded meats were a mainstay of the American summer table before refrigeration was general: cooked once in the cool of the morning, set overnight in the coldest corner of the larder or on ice, and sliced for days afterward without further heat in the kitchen. Veal was a natural choice because its bones and connective tissue are rich in collagen — the same property that made calf's-foot jelly a standard invalid food — so the loaf sets without commercial gelatin. The decorative touches here, hard-boiled egg white cut into daisies with a yolk centre and radishes carved as tulips, place the dish in the era's enthusiasm for "fancy" cold service, when a moulded loaf turned out onto a platter was expected to look composed rather than merely fed. It is a dish made the day before, requiring no oven on a hot afternoon.