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Veal, Bachelor's Stew Of
In order to cook veal successfully in this way there should be at hand a small saucepan with a very closely-fitting lid. Take from the fillet a slice of veal about two inches thick, and weighing from two to three pounds. Dissolve a slice of fresh butter in the saucepan and brown the cutlet in this on both sides. Dredge it with pepper, and place upon it a little piece of lean ham, together with two or three sliced carrots, some sticks of celery, a few onions or peas, or any other suitable flavouring ingredients, together with salt and cayenne, a spoonful of ketchup, and a tea-cupful of boiling stock or water. Cover the saucepan very closely, and let its contents simmer as gently as possible until done enough. Place the veal on a hot dish, garnish with the vegetables, thicken the gravy, pour it over the meat, and serve very hot. Time to simmer, an hour and three-quarters. Probable cost, with two pounds of veal, 3s. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A single thick slab of veal braised in its own steam — the whole method rests on a lid that traps moisture, since there is only a teacupful of liquid in the pan.
- The lid is the recipeWith just one cup of liquid under a 2–3 lb piece of meat, any steam that escapes is not replaced. Use a heavy pan with a tight lid, or lay a sheet of foil under the lid, and keep the heat at a bare shiver rather than a simmer.
- Cut and thickness"From the fillet" means the leg — a thick round steak. Ask for a 2-inch veal round or top round steak; a modern cutlet or scaloppine is far too thin and would be ruined by 105 minutes of cooking.
- A tea-cupfulRoughly a quarter-pint in period reckoning (about 5–6 fl oz), rather than a modern 8-oz mug. Add it hot so the pan does not lose its browning heat.
- KetchupIn this period ketchup usually means mushroom or walnut ketchup — thin, dark, salty, with no sugar and no tomato. Worcestershire sauce or a spoonful of mushroom ketchup is closer than modern tomato ketchup, which will sweeten the gravy.
- The lean hamA small piece of dry-cured ham or unsmoked bacon, there for salt and body. Season lightly at the start and correct the gravy at the end, or the reduced sauce will be over-salted.
- TimingAn hour and three-quarters suits a thick leg cut, which needs long gentle cooking to soften. Check at 75 minutes: it is done when a skewer meets no resistance, and if the liquid has dropped below a shallow film, add a splash of stock.
- VegetablesCarrots, celery and onion will be very soft after this long; peas should go in for the last 10 minutes only if you want them green rather than as flavouring.
- Thickening and yieldStrain the pan juices, then whisk in a teaspoon of beurre manié (equal butter and flour) or reduce hard for a minute. Serves two to three as written, as the original states.
Cassell's puts this among a long run of veal entries, and the name signals both audience and ambition: a "bachelor's" dish in late-Victorian cookery writing is often taken to mean something a man living alone, or a household with one servant and one fire, could manage without a kitchen brigade, and no attention for the better part of two hours. The technique is a plain braise, what French cookery calls étuve, cooking in trapped steam. The quoted cost of 3s. for two pounds was a real, if not trifling, sum, and Cassell's habit of pricing every dish tells you the book was written for readers doing arithmetic before they did any cooking.