Home › The Principles of Cookery › Veal, Braised, with Truffles
Veal, Braised, with Truffles
Take about four pounds of veal from the middle of the loin. Saw off the chine-bone, cut the bones short, slice off the skin and flesh to the depth of an eighth of an inch. Spread on this two ounces of butter and three fresh truffles which have been cleaned and thinly sliced. Restore the slice to its original position, and sew it on securely with twine. Butter a stewpan, and cover the bottom with a thin slice of ham. Put the veal on this, and place round it the bones and trimmings, a sliced carrot, an onion stuck with two cloves, a mushroom chopped small, a lump of sugar, a small blade of mace, a pinch of grated nutmeg, a grain of coriander-seed and a piece of garlic the size of a split pea. These two last ingredients may be omitted. Pour over all half a pint of stock or water, cover the saucepan closely, and let its contents simmer very gently till done enough. Skim the liquor, and baste the meat with it frequently. Take up the veal, and put it in the oven to keep hot. Skim the fat from the gravy, and rub it, with the vegetables, etc., through a fine sieve. Let it boil, and if liked add a glassful of sherry or Madeira. Put the veal on a dish, pour the gravy over, and serve very hot. Time to simmer the meat, two hours and a half. Probable cost, veal, 1s. per pound.
A Victorian braise built around a piece of loin that is opened, larded with butter and truffle, and closed again. The technique is sound; the cut, the timing and the truffle economics all need translating.
- The hinge: don't cook it for two and a half hoursThe hinge: think hard about two and a half hours -- Loin of veal is lean, and a full 2½ hours of gentle simmering will leave it very well done by modern taste. If you want it pink, cook to about 145F in the centre, roughly 75-100 minutes in a 300F oven. The longer time given here suits a fattier, tougher cut such as shoulder or breast.
- The cut and the butcher"Veal from the middle of the loin" with the chine sawed off and the bones cut short is a bone-in loin roast. Ask for the chine removed and the bone ends shortened, and keep the trimmings — the recipe wants them in the pot. A boneless loin of the same weight works if you add a few veal or chicken bones for body.
- Slicing off "the skin and flesh to the depth of an eighth of an inch"A thin layer is taken off the top of the loin; butter and truffle go underneath, then it is put back and stitched down with butcher's twine. Whether it is cut free or left hinged at one side the text does not say; hinging it is the easier way to manage. The seasoning perfumes the meat as it cooks.
- TrufflesThree fresh truffles at the price this book assumed are not a modern proposition. A single fresh black winter truffle sliced thin will do the same job; preserved truffle peelings plus a little truffle-scented butter is the honest budget version. Truffle oil under a flap of meat for 90 minutes turns harsh.
- Half a pint of stockAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups. That is deliberately shallow — this is a braise, not a stew, and the meat sits mostly above the liquid. The pan is covered closely, so expect the top to steam rather than brown.
- "Simmer very gently"On a modern burner the lowest setting can scorch a heavy pan under a covered roast. Bring the liquid to a bare simmer on the hob, and if the base catches, move the covered pan to a 300F oven, which holds a gentle heat without attention.
- Small measuresA lump of sugar is roughly a teaspoon. A blade of mace is one piece of the lacy aril, worth about ¼ teaspoon ground if you have no whole mace. The single coriander seed and pea-sized garlic are not typographical caution — Victorian cookery used both as background notes, and the recipe openly offers to drop them.
- The ham baseThe slice of ham on the bottom of the pan is there to keep the veal off the metal and to season the liquor. Use an unsmoked cooked ham or a thick slice of prosciutto cotto; heavily smoked bacon will dominate the sauce.
- The saucePressing the vegetables and their liquid through a sieve is what thickens this — a light vegetable purée rather than a roux. Reduce it after sieving if it seems thin, and add the sherry or Madeira with a couple of minutes' boiling to cook off the raw spirit.
- Holding and yield"Put it in the oven to keep hot" means a warming oven, around 175-200F, and 15 minutes' rest does the meat good. A 4 lb bone-in loin serves six to eight.
The method here is classic braisage as the nineteenth-century professional kitchen understood it: a tightly covered pan, a lining of ham to shield the meat, aromatics and trimmings packed around it, and only a little liquid, so the joint half-steams and half-stews in its own concentrated juices. Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, compiled in London in the 1870s for a middle-class readership working with a range rather than a brigade, repeatedly translates such French restaurant technique into terms a competent household cook could follow — hence the practical touches of sawing the chine and sewing the flap with twine. Perfuming meat with truffle laid directly against the flesh, so the aroma penetrates during the slow cook, is a long-standing French practice usually associated with Périgord black truffles and with poultry as much as veal. The closing note of "probable cost, veal, 1s. per pound" is characteristic of the book and a reminder of its purpose: veal was a genteel, town-butcher's meat, and the price line let a mistress of the house check her cook's accounts.