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Mouse of Veal
Line an oval mould with aspic, garnish with slices of truffle and sweetbreads stamped out in shapes. Pound together three ounces of cooked veal and two ounces of foie gras, and pass through a sieve. Mix it with half a pint of stock and a glass of sherry in which half an ounce of sheet gelatine has been dissolved. Then stir in a table-spoonful of mushroom essence, and whip the mixture until it looks spongy. The stock should be cool before it is added to the foie gras and veal. Put it into the prepared mould, pour more aspic over the top, and set on ice until firm. Turn it out, and garnish with a few slices of truffle and small blocks of aspic.
A cold moulded veal mousse of the Edwardian buffet sort — the title is simply "mousse" in an older English spelling. Nearly everything depends on temperature control, since there is no oven step at all.
- The hinge: whip at setting pointThe purée must be cool but still fluid when you begin whisking, and it will only hold air as it approaches the set. Set the bowl over ice and whisk until it thickens and looks spongy; too warm and it stays liquid, too cold and it seizes into rubbery lumps.
- Half a pintBritish imperial measure here, so 10 fl oz — about 1¼ US cups of stock. The "glass of sherry" is an unstandardised sherry glass, roughly 2 fl oz.
- Sheet gelatineHalf an ounce is about 14 g, or roughly seven modern leaves at 2 g each. Bloom strengths differ between brands and between then and now, so treat this as approximate and test a spoonful on a cold plate before filling the mould.
- AspicA clear, well-flavoured veal or chicken stock stiffened with gelatine and usually clarified with egg white. It must be lightly set to line a mould: chill the mould, pour in a thin layer, and rotate it on ice so the aspic coats the sides evenly before the truffle and sweetbread cut-outs are pressed on.
- SweetbreadsAssumed already prepared — soaked in several changes of cold water, blanched, trimmed of membrane and pressed flat under a weight, which is what makes them firm enough to stamp into shapes.
- Mushroom essenceA concentrated reduction of mushroom liquor, sold bottled at the time. A tablespoon of reduced dried-mushroom soaking liquid, or a little mushroom ketchup, does the same job; a modern glutamate-heavy stock concentrate will overwhelm the veal.
- TruffleTruffles were more plentiful and less costly than today, though still a luxury used sparingly for decoration. Preserved truffle slices or thin rounds of dark-cooked mushroom will read the same way against the pale mousse.
- Setting and unmoulding"Set on ice" means the refrigerator now — allow at least four hours, and overnight is better. Dip the mould briefly in warm water and invert onto a chilled plate; the aspic layer releases in a second or two.
- YieldThree ounces of veal and two of foie gras thinned with stock make a small mould: four to six portions as a first course, not a main dish.
Cold mousses set in lined aspic moulds were a fixture of the late-Victorian and Edwardian cold table, where a buffet was judged as much on how it looked as how it tasted — hence the truffle cut-outs, the mirror-clear jelly and the neat chopped aspic garnish. The technique belonged to the professional repertoire codified in French kitchens and then translated for well-staffed English households: it assumes cooked veal and prepared sweetbreads already to hand, a supply of good gelatinous stock, and above all ice. Domestic mechanical refrigeration was not yet common, so "set on ice" meant an ice-box or ice-chest stocked from a commercial ice merchant, an expense that suggests a household with money. The couple of ounces of foie gras give a modest scrap of leftover veal both richness and body.