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Veal, Brisket of, Stewed with Onions
Cut the brisket of veal into small pieces convenient for serving. Rub a stewpan quickly three or four times across with a freshly-cut clove of garlic. Dissolve in the pan a thick slice of fresh butter, put in the veal, and add three large onions thinly sliced, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, and a little pepper and salt. Cover the saucepan closely, and stew its contents as gently as possible till done enough. Shake the saucepan frequently to keep the veal from burning. Ten minutes before the dish is to be served pour over the meat a little stock, if this is needed. Throw in a dessert-spoonful of chopped parsley. Let all boil up together, and serve the pieces of veal and the onions in a hot dish with the gravy poured over them. Garnish with toasted sippets and sliced lemon. Time to simmer the veal, two hours. Probable cost, 8d. per pound. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A dry stew in the French manner: the veal cooks in butter and onion juices alone, with stock added only at the end. Everything depends on keeping the pan tightly shut and the heat very low.
- The hinge: no liquid at the startThe onions and butter supply the moisture for almost the whole two hours; stock goes in only ten minutes before serving, and then only "if this is needed". The lid must seal and the flame must be as low as it will go. A heavy pan with a close-fitting lid is far more reliable than a thin saucepan on a burner.
- Brisket of vealWhat is meant here is the breast, sold today as veal breast or riblets, usually bone-in. Around 2 to 2 1/2 lb of bone-in breast, cut into 2-inch pieces, suits five or six people. Boneless veal shoulder works but needs watching, as it dries sooner.
- A thick slice of fresh butterRead this as 2 oz, about half a stick. "Fresh" means unsalted, which matters here because the butter is not clarified and the seasoning is added separately.
- The garlic rubRubbing the cut clove across the pan leaves only a trace of garlic, which is the intent. If you would rather have it forward, add a whole crushed clove with the onions instead.
- OnionsThree large onions is roughly 1 1/2 lb, sliced thin. They collapse almost completely over two hours and become the sauce, so slice them finely rather than in wedges.
- Spoon measuresA dessert-spoonful is about 2 teaspoons. "A little stock" at the end means perhaps 1/2 cup, just enough to loosen what has caught on the base of the pan.
- Time and donenessTwo hours of the barest simmer is right for bone-in breast; the meat should give way at the bone. Shake rather than stir, as the pieces break up easily once tender.
- SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of bread, toasted or fried in butter and set around the edge of the dish. They exist to soak up gravy, so add them at the table, not before.
Veal breast was one of the cheaper cuts in a Victorian butcher's shop, and the dish cost about 8d. a pound. The method is often described as a plain English rendering of the French etuvee or smothered stew, in which meat and a large quantity of onion cook in their own juices under a sealed lid; the garlic-rubbed pan is the same restrained gesture that French cookery applies to a salad bowl, giving scent without asserting flavour. Cassell's, first issued in the 1870s and reprinted for decades, carried such economical continental techniques alongside British roasts and boils, and the sippets and sliced lemon garnish are a period signature, appearing around everything from stewed veal to calf's head.