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Veal, Cold, Minced Plainly
Take one pound of cold veal, free it from the bone, skin, and almost entirely from fat; cut it into small pieces with a sharp knife, and afterwards mince them finely. Season with a little pepper and salt, a pinch of pounded mace or grated nutmeg, and the rind of a quarter of a small lemon lightly grated; cover with a cloth, and leave it in a cool place till wanted. Break the bone of the veal, and put the pieces into a saucepan with the trimmings and skin, a quarter of the rind of a lemon, a small bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, and a few pepper-corns. Pour upon these ingredients a pint and a half of stock or water, cover the saucepan closely, and stew the gravy gently till it is strong and pleasantly flavoured. When they can be had, a slice of carrot, a stick of celery, an ounce of boiled or unboiled ham, or a little bacon-rind, may be stewed with the gravy. Strain it into a bowl, and when cold free it entirely from fat. Moisten the mince thoroughly with it. Melt a slice of fresh butter in a saucepan. Mix smoothly with it a dessert-spoonful of flour and about two table-spoonfuls of thick cream or milk. Stir the mince into this, and let it get thoroughly hot by the side of the fire, but on no account allow it to boil. Pour the preparation into a dish, garnish with toasted sippets, and serve very hot. A few thin rashers of fried bacon may be served as an accompaniment. Time, about two hours to simmer the gravy; twenty minutes to heat the mince. Probable cost, 6d., exclusive of the cold meat. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A thrifty second-day dish built on a stock made from the roast's own bones. Two things decide whether it works: the strength of that gravy and keeping the finished mince below a simmer.
- Never let it boilCold cooked veal reheated at a boil tightens and turns granular, and the cream will split. Hold it at a bare steam, stirring, until hot through.
- Twenty minutes is too longThe heating time assumes a cool spot at the edge of a coal range. Over a modern burner on low, five to eight minutes brings a pound of mince to serving heat.
- Imperial measuresA pint and a half of stock is 30 imperial fl oz, about 3 1/2 US cups. A dessert-spoonful is roughly 2 teaspoons; the recipe does not fix the size of a "slice of fresh butter", but about 1 oz (2 tablespoons) suits the flour and cream given.
- Mince, do not grindChopping with a knife gives distinct threads of meat that hold sauce. A food processor turns cold veal to paste in seconds; if you use one, pulse two or three times only.
- The stock is the dishTwo hours of gentle simmering on the bones, trimmings, ham or bacon rind and herbs. The recipe gives no final quantity, only that the gravy should be stewed until 'strong and pleasantly flavoured'. If it tastes thin, reduce it further before moistening the mince.
- Lemon rindGrate the zest only, avoiding the white pith. A quarter of a small lemon is roughly a scant half teaspoon of zest.
- Mace and nutmegPounded mace means whole blades crushed in a mortar; ground mace from a jar is a fair substitute, though the recipe asks only for a pinch. Both mace and nutmeg fade fast once ground.
- SippetsTriangles or narrow fingers of toast or bread fried in butter, arranged round the rim. Add them at the table so they stay crisp.
- YieldThree to four as written; with the fried bacon and toast it makes a light supper rather than a main course.
Minced veal in a white sauce was one of the standard ways an English household used up a cold joint, and the pattern here -- stock from the bones, meat chopped by hand, a butter-and-flour liaison finished with cream -- belongs to the same family as the "minced veal" and collops found in eighteenth-century books such as Hannah Glasse's. The recipe itself gives the costing of sixpence exclusive of the cold meat. Veal was more common on British tables in the nineteenth century than it later became, in part a by-product of the dairy trade, and the seasoning of mace, nutmeg and lemon peel is a conventional Georgian and Victorian treatment for pale meats -- the same trio turns up in forcemeat, veal pies and potted veal throughout the period.