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Pork Cutlets, Savoury
Savoury pork cutlets may be dressed according to the directions given for savoury pork chops (see PORK CHOPS, SAVOURY), or as follows. Take a moderate-sized saucepan with a closely-fitting lid. Melt in this two ounces of fresh butter, and throw into it a table-spoonful each of chopped parsley and sage, a pinch of thyme, three bay-leaves, a blade of mace, and eight all-spice berries. Stir over the fire for a minute, then add a glass of light wine and a pound of properly trimmed pork cutlets. Cover the saucepan closely, and let the contents steam for a quarter of an hour. Take the cutlets up, drain them, and dip them first into beaten egg, and afterwards into finely-grated bread-crumbs. Fry quickly, and serve them round a hot dish, with the sauce poured into the centre. The sauce may be prepared as follows. Strain the sauce from the cutlets. Skim it, stir a table-spoonful of lemon-juice into it, thicken with a very small portion of flour, and just before sending it to table mix a tea-spoonful of mustard with it. Time, ten minutes to fry the cutlets. Probable cost, cutlets, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A two-stage method: the cutlets are first braised-steamed in aromatic butter and wine, then crumbed and fried, with the braising liquid finished as the sauce. The hinge is drying the meat properly before it meets the egg.
- Drain and dry before crumbingSteamed cutlets come out wet, and wet meat sheds its coating in the pan. Drain them, blot with paper towel and let them cool a few minutes so the egg clings and the crumbs set.
- "A glass of light wine"A Victorian wineglassful was usually reckoned at around 2 fl oz, though "a glass" here may be meant more loosely; somewhere between 2 and 4 fl oz of a dry white is a fair reading. "Light wine" generally indicated an unfortified table wine rather than something like sherry or Madeira, which would be too assertive here.
- Pork cutletsIn Victorian butchery these are thin slices, usually from the loin or neck, trimmed of most fat and sometimes of the bone; roughly what a modern shop sells as boneless pork loin chops or cutlets, about 1/2 inch thick. The book reckons a pound sufficient for two or three.
- Whole spicesA blade of mace is one strip of the lacy husk of nutmeg; a pinch of ground mace substitutes. The three bay leaves, mace and eight allspice berries all get strained out with the sauce, so there is no need to grind anything.
- Steaming timeA quarter of an hour on a tight-lidded pan over low heat will very nearly cook thin cutlets through; the subsequent frying is for colour and crust. Pork is done at 145F internal with a short rest, so keep the fry brisk — five minutes total rather than the ten given, unless the cutlets are thick.
- The sauceSkim the butter fat off the strained liquid, then thicken with no more than a teaspoon of flour slaked in a little cold water. Add the mustard off the heat at the last moment: boiling mustard turns it bitter and flat.
- Frying fatUse clarified butter or a neutral oil hot enough to brown crumbs in under a minute. The 2 oz of butter from the braise has picked up herbs and will scorch.
- YieldTwo or three as the book says, arranged in a ring with the sauce pooled in the middle — a standard Victorian presentation that suits mashed potato or a purée in the centre instead if you prefer to serve the sauce separately.
Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery was an alphabetical household compendium of the late nineteenth century, which is why this entry opens by cross-referencing savoury pork chops rather than repeating itself: the book was built to be consulted, not read through. The method -- gently cooking the meat in an aromatic liquor, then egging, crumbing and frying so the crust forms over meat already tender -- recalls the French treatment of cutlets a la Sainte-Menehould, though there is nothing in the entry to show a direct borrowing. The seasoning is thoroughly English: parsley, sage and thyme with bay, mace and allspice, the same spice cupboard that flavoured potted meats and pork pies, finished with lemon and mustard. The "probable cost" of a shilling a pound reflects a book that expected its readers to budget a dinner as well as order it.