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Veal, Breast of, Broiled
Three-parts roast a portion of the breast of veal. Take it up, score it across in even lines, and fill these with salt and cayenne and a few powdered herbs. Broil the veal over a clear fire, and turn it over from one side to the other till it is done enough. Serve on a hot dish, with piquant sauce poured over it.
A two-stage method: the meat is part-roasted to render and tenderise, then finished over live fire for colour and crust. The roasting is the part that must be done properly.
- Cut and sizeBreast of veal is the belly section, layered with fat and cartilage between thin rib bones. A boneless rolled breast or a bone-in slab of 3-4 lb feeds four to six; ask a butcher, since it is rarely on display.
- "Three-parts roast"Roast until about three-quarters cooked, not three-quarters of the clock time. A fatty, sinewy cut suits a slow roast, and a 3-4 lb piece will want a couple of hours before it goes over the fire to finish. The recipe specifies no oven heat, so any temperature given is a modern suggestion.
- Rest before scoringScoring -- The recipe scores the meat as soon as it is taken up from the roast, so the lattice is cut hot. Letting it cool a little first may make the lines easier to cut, but that is an addition to the method, not what the text directs.
- Scoring depthCut through the fat and no more than 1/4 inch into the flesh. The point is to open channels the salt, cayenne and herbs can sit in, not to butterfly the joint.
- Herbs"Powdered herbs" means dried herbs rubbed to dust in the period sense: thyme, marjoram, sage, sometimes a little dried lemon peel. Dried leaf herbs crushed fine do the same job.
- A clear fireCharcoal burnt down past flame, or a gas grill on medium. The joint is already fat-heavy and part-cooked, so flare-ups are the main risk; keep a cool zone to move it to. A few minutes a side is enough to crisp and finish -- the recipe simply says to turn it from side to side till it is done enough.
- DonenessVeal is safe at 145F internal, but this cut eats badly there. It wants the collagen broken down, so aim for a fork-tender interior from the roasting stage and use the broiling only for the surface.
- Piquant sauceA Victorian sauce piquante is a brown sauce sharpened with vinegar and shallot, usually with gherkin and often capers. Any tart brown sauce of that kind serves the purpose, and it suits a dish this rich.
Breast of veal was a cheap cut in the nineteenth-century butcher's shop, thick with fat and connective tissue and slow to cook, which is why the period cookbooks are full of ways to stuff it, braise it or roll it. Cassell's dresses this one with a "piquant sauce", the anglicised sauce piquante, a sharp brown sauce English kitchens relied on to cut through fat. The finishing technique -- score the surface, force seasoning into the cuts, put it over the fire to crisp, and dress it with something sharp -- is close to that used for devilled bones and broiled poultry legs, though here the meat is roasted expressly for the purpose rather than being a joint that has already been to table.