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ROLLED VEAL (for breakfast, supper, or luncheon)
Bone a breast of veal, lay it flat on the table, and spread over the inside a layer of good veal forcemeat, the third of an inch in thickness. Add in alternate rows a table-spoonful of green pickles, and three hard-boiled eggs cut into quarters lengthwise, and lay over all some slices of lean uncooked ham. Roll the veal tightly, and bind securely with tape. Put it into a saucepan of stock, let it boil, then draw it to the side, and simmer as gently as possible till tender. Take the veal up, put it on a dish, lay a board with a weight upon it, and let it remain until cold. Take off the tape, fasten the veal with a silver skewer, trim it neatly, and brush over with glaze. Garnish the dish with parsley, green pickles, clear jelly cut into dice, etc. Time to simmer the veal, about three hours. Probable cost, 1s. per pound. Sufficient for twelve persons.
A galantine in all but name: a boned breast of veal rolled around forcemeat and simmered, then pressed cold and sliced thin. Most of the work is in the rolling and the cooling, and the recipe is silent on both in ways worth filling in.
- The hinge: press it cold, in the refrigeratorThe whole texture depends on the roll setting under weight so it slices cleanly rather than crumbling. Cool it a short while at room temperature, then move it to the refrigerator with the board and weight (a couple of tins, or 2-3 lb) still on top, and leave it overnight. A Victorian larder is not a modern kitchen; several hours of an unrefrigerated meat roll sitting at room temperature is the one instruction not to follow literally.
- Boned breast of vealOrder it boned and butterflied; it is a large, flat cut, and boning and trimming will take off a substantial share of the bone-in weight. Veal breast is a fatty, gelatinous cut, which is exactly why it holds together when pressed. Ask for the flap left whole rather than cut into strips.
- Veal forcemeatVictorian veal forcemeat is typically minced veal bound with suet or butter, fresh breadcrumbs, egg, and seasoning of lemon peel, parsley, mace and nutmeg. Ground veal with an egg, a cup of breadcrumbs and those seasonings gets you there. A third of an inch is thin; resist the urge to overstuff or the roll will burst its bindings.
- Green picklesSmall pickled gherkins or cornichons, not dill spears. They are there for acidity and for the green cross-section when the roll is sliced, so keep them whole or halved lengthwise and lay them in straight lines.
- Tape and skewerButcher's tape was flat cotton, used because it does not cut into the meat as string does. Kitchen twine tied at one-inch intervals works, or truss the roll in a double layer of muslin. The "silver skewer" is a serving flourish only, holding the shape once the tape comes off.
- Simmer, do not boilAfter the initial boil, the pot should barely tremble, around 180F. A rolling boil will squeeze the forcemeat out and toughen the veal. Three hours is right for a full-size roll; check with a skewer that goes in without resistance.
- GlazeReduced brown stock, boiled down until it coats a spoon and sets tacky when cold. Save some of the cooking liquid, strain it and reduce it hard; there is enough gelatin in a veal breast that it will set on its own. The 'clear jelly cut into dice' in the garnish would most likely be made from the same liquid, clarified, set firm and chopped.
- Yield and servingTwelve is realistic for a cold buffet, with slices cut about a quarter-inch thick straight through the roll. Cut it cold, never warm. Sliced, it keeps three or four days refrigerated.
Rolled or collared meats were a standing feature of the English cold table long before Cassell's, and this one is a domestic cousin of the French galantine: boned meat, forcemeat, a decorative mosaic of egg and pickle in cross-section, poached and pressed. The point was economy of labour as much as of money. A large roll cooked once on a Monday supplied breakfast, supper and luncheon for days without further cooking. Breast of veal at the quoted shilling a pound made a dish that looked far grander on the dish than it cost to assemble. The instruction to garnish with diced jelly and to brush the whole with glaze belongs to the same period taste for gloss and geometry that produced the aspic moulds and chaudfroids of the era's dinner tables.