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Veal, Braised
Take about three pounds of veal--the middle of the loin or the best end of the neck will be the most suitable for the purpose. Cut the bones short, and chop off the chine-bone close to the meat. Take a small bright saucepan, and rub the bottom quickly three or four times across with a clove of garlic. Lay two or three thin slices of lean bacon or ham in the bottom of the saucepan, and place the veal upon these. Add a carrot, an onion stuck with two cloves, a tea-spoonful of chopped mushrooms, a lump of sugar, a small blade of mace, a pinch of grated nutmeg, a little pepper, and salt if the bacon is not already sufficiently salted. Place thin slices of fat bacon upon the veal, and pour upon it half a pint of cold stock or of water. Cover the pan closely, and simmer the meat as gently as possible till done enough. Take up the veal, put it on a hot dish, and place it in the oven for a short time to keep hot. Skim the gravy, and rub it, with the ham, vegetables, etc., through a fine hair sieve. Let it boil up, stir a wine-glassful of Madeira into it, pour it upon the veal, and serve very hot. If a superlative dish is required, before dressing the meat cut off the skin of the veal, but not too closely. Spread two ounces of butter on the meat and lay on the butter three fresh truffles which have been cleaned and cut into thin slices. Place the skin in its original position, and sew it on with coarse twine. Proceed as before. Probable cost, veal, 11d. per pound. Sufficient for six or seven persons.
A classic braise in the French manner, done on the stovetop rather than in the oven, with the bacon acting as both fat and seasoning. The instructions are complete except for time and heat, which the original assumes you can judge.
- The hinge: barely a simmerHalf a pint of liquid under a three-pound joint is a steam braise, not a stew, so the pan must be tightly covered and the heat low enough that the liquid only trembles. A hard boil will drive off the liquid, scorch the bacon on the bottom and squeeze the veal tough and grainy.
- TimingReckon on about 2 to 2½ hours for three pounds, until the meat pulls easily from the bone. If your stovetop will not hold a low enough flame, set the covered pan in a 300F oven instead and check the liquid every 45 minutes.
- MeasuresHalf a pint of stock is one cup by US measure (a British half-pint is 10 fl oz, so a scant 1¼ cups). A wine-glassful of Madeira is roughly 2 to 2½ fluid ounces.
- The cutsThe middle of the loin and the best end of the neck are the rib and loin sections; a modern butcher will call them veal rack or veal loin roast. The chine-bone is the spinal section along the base of the ribs and needs a saw, not a knife, so ask for it removed and the rib bones shortened.
- BaconThe recipe wants two kinds: lean bacon or ham under the meat for flavour, and fat bacon over it to baste as it cooks. Use unsmoked streaky bacon or fresh pork fatback if you can get it, since modern heavily smoked bacon will dominate the delicate veal.
- Blade of maceOne blade is a shard of the dried nutmeg husk, about a quarter teaspoon of ground mace. With grated nutmeg already in the pot the two are near-duplicates; a light hand is sensible.
- The hair sieveA fine-mesh conical strainer does the same work. Push the softened vegetables and ham through with the back of a ladle to thicken the sauce, then reduce it before the Madeira goes in, and add the wine off the boil so it keeps its aroma.
- The truffle variationSkin-on veal loin is not a supermarket item and sewing it back with twine is a whole-carcass butcher's technique. Sliced truffle tucked under the fat bacon, or a spoonful of truffle butter stirred into the finished sauce, gets most of the effect.
- YieldSix or seven as written, with potatoes and a green vegetable. The prices quoted throughout this book are late-Victorian retail and are of historical interest only.
Braising in a closely covered pan with bacon beneath and above the meat is the French braise adapted for the English kitchen range, and the entry teaches the method rather than a single dish: fat below, aromatics around, very little liquid, long gentle heat. Veal was a natural subject for it, being lean, mild and prone to drying out under a roast's dry heat; the dictionary belongs to the 1870s and 80s. The Madeira and the truffle-under-the-skin refinement are borrowed from the grand French repertoire, where truffles were slipped beneath the skin of poultry and game for the same reason -- the fat carries the aroma into the flesh as it cooks. The recipe's own framing, that truffles are for when 'a superlative dish is required', marks them as an expensive extra rather than an everyday ingredient.