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Polish Cutlets
Take a pound of tender rump steak not more than an inch thick; cut it into neat rounds, and beat these flat with a cutlet-bat. Mince finely two shallots, or a moderate-sized onion, and, if liked, add half a clove of garlic. Put these ingredients into a stewpan with two ounces of butter, half a salt-spoonful of pepper, and three bruised cloves. When the onions are tender, without being at all browned, lay the cutlets upon them, cover the saucepan closely, and let them steam very gently until they are quite tender. If the gravy dries, add one or two spoonfuls of stock, or even water. When the cutlets are done enough, lift them out, and place them on a hot dish. Skim the gravy. Dredge a little flour into it, and colour with burnt sugar-or, better still, put a nut of brown thickening into it-let it boil two or three minutes, and strain it over the meat. Put a bordering of fried sliced potatoes round the dish, or place a few mashed potatoes in the centre, and serve very hot. Time to steam, about an hour. Probable cost, 1s. 10d. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A gentle onion braise dressed up as a cutlet. Everything depends on keeping the heat low enough that nothing browns.
- The hinge: no colour at allThe onions must soften in butter without taking on any colour, and the steaks steam on top of them rather than frying. Use the lowest burner setting with a tight lid; a covered pan in a low oven will also hold a gentle heat, though the recipe assumes the hob and gives no temperature.
- Cutlet-batA flat metal or wooden meat mallet. The smooth face of any meat tenderiser, or a small heavy pan, will flatten the rounds without shredding them; the recipe gives no finished thickness, only that the steak starts no more than an inch thick.
- Salt-spoonfulA quarter teaspoon. Note that the recipe seasons only with pepper here; salt the gravy at the end, since the stock added along the way may already carry plenty.
- Burnt sugar and brown thickeningBurnt sugar is caramel colouring, sold now as gravy browning; a scant teaspoon is enough. "Brown thickening" is flour cooked in butter until nut-coloured, essentially a dark roux kept in the larder as a lump. A knob of beurre manié made with lightly toasted flour does the same job.
- The clovesThree whole cloves is assertive in a pound of meat. They are strained out with the gravy, but bruise them lightly rather than crushing them to powder or the spice will dominate.
- An hour of steamingPounded rump is not stewing meat, and an hour at a bare tremble is about the limit before it dries and tightens. Start checking at 40 minutes; the cutlets are done when a fork meets no resistance.
- LiquidVery little liquid is wanted. Add stock a spoonful at a time only when the pan threatens to catch, otherwise the dish becomes a stew and the gravy needs long reduction at the end.
- Yield and costTwo to three portions from a pound of steak, as stated. The 1s 10d is the Victorian retail price and has no modern equivalent worth calculating.
English cookery books of the later nineteenth century were fond of national labels, and "Polish cutlets" bears a resemblance, though no documented line of descent, to zrazy, the Polish beef collops that are beaten thin and braised slowly with onion. What survives here is a method rather than any particular Polish detail: pounded beef, a heavy bed of shallot or onion sweated in butter, whole cloves for warmth, and a dark thin gravy. Cassell's dictionaries were compiled for middle-class households, and the instruction is to steam rather than to roast or fry, while the colour of the sauce is achieved with burnt sugar rather than with browning the meat. The bordering of fried or mashed potato is a standard Victorian dressing, meant to make a small quantity of steak look like a served dish.