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VEAL, BREAST OF (a la Marengo)
This is an imitation of the famous fricasseed Chicken a la Marengo (which see). Cut up a portion of the breast of veal into neat pieces convenient for serving. Fry these in butter or fat till they are lightly browned, and put into the pan with them a little grated ham, a large onion thinly sliced, and a little pepper and salt. Pour upon them as much stock or water as will barely cover them. Simmer all gently together till the veal is done enough, then add half a dozen or more stewed mushrooms. Thicken the sauce with a small piece of brown thickening, and throw into it at the moment of serving a little finely-chopped parsley. Put the veal into a dish, pour the sauce over, and garnish with toasted sippets. Time to simmer the veal, about two hours. Probable cost, breast of veal, 9d. to 10d. per pound.
A straightforward brown braise of a cheap cut, written for cooks who already knew what "brown thickening" and "sippets" meant. The points below fill in the gaps.
- Brown thickeningA Victorian pantry staple: flour cooked in butter or dripping until nut-brown, kept in a jar and whisked in by the spoonful. A tablespoon each of butter and flour cooked to a mid-brown roux does the same job at the end of the braise.
- SippetsTriangles or fingers of bread, toasted or fried, set around the rim of the dish. They exist to soak up the sauce; fried in the same pan after the veal gives the better result.
- Breast of vealA layered cut of rib, fat and connective tissue, sold today as boneless rolled breast or riblets. Bone-in pieces braise better; ask for it cut across the ribs into two-inch sections. Roughly 3 lb bone-in for four people.
- The two hours are realUnlike many Victorian timings, this one is not excessive. Breast of veal is collagen-heavy and needs a long, bare simmer to turn gelatinous. Hold the liquid just below a shiver — a rolling boil will make the meat stringy while the connective tissue is still tough.
- Grated hamDry-cured ham, grated on the coarse side of the box grater so it dissolves into the sauce as seasoning rather than sitting in it as chunks. Prosciutto ends or a piece of country ham work. Salt the dish only at the end, after the ham has done its work.
- Stewed mushroomsThe book assumes mushrooms already stewed separately and simply added at the end. Saute 8 oz of brown mushrooms hard in butter until they have released and reabsorbed their liquid, then add them for the last ten minutes so they do not go grey and slack.
- What is missing from MarengoTomato, garlic and white wine, all present in most chicken à la Marengo recipes, are absent here. If you want the dish to taste like the one it imitates, deglaze with a glass of dry white wine after browning and add a couple of chopped tomatoes with the stock.
- The cost lineNinepence to tenpence a pound made breast of veal the cheapest way into veal -- which is why it appears here, dressed in the name of an expensive restaurant dish.
Chicken o to to the aftermath of Napoleon's victory at Marengo in June 1800, the story being that his cook assembled a dish from whatever the foraging parties brought in — a chicken, tomatoes, garlic, oil, crayfish, eggs. The tale is traditional rather than documented, and the dish as it appears in nineteenth-century cookbooks has been thoroughly professionalised: a brown sauté with mushrooms and a thickened sauce, the crayfish and fried egg surviving only in the grander versions. What Cassell's does here is characteristic of the book's method. A celebrated name is attached to a much cheaper cut, and the entry admits it openly as "an imitation" while cross-referencing the original. Breast of veal was an inexpensive cut, and dressing it in the manner of a famous dish was the sort of economy a household cook was expected to manage without comment.