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Veal, Cold, to Re-Cook
Cold veal may be served in various ways, for which recipes are given under the different headings. It may be minced, hashed, or made into croquettes and rissoles, curried, made into minced collops, and served with tartar sauce, or made into a mould. For the latter method proceed as follows. Cut cold cooked veal into slices, and mince them finely, fat and lean together. Season as for minced veal, with salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, and a little lemon-rind. Moisten with white stock, and bind the whole together with yolk of egg. Press it into a buttered mould, cover closely, and put it into a pan of fast-boiling water. Let it simmer gently for an hour, or longer if large. Turn it out, and serve with white gravy, or if preferred brush it over after it is turned out with beaten egg, sprinkle finely-grated bread-crumbs thickly over it, brown it in a brisk oven, or before the fire, and send brown sauce to table with it. Garnish with cut lemon and parsley. Time to boil the mould, one hour or more.
A Victorian solution to the leftover joint: minced cold veal bound with egg yolk, steamed in a mould, and served either plain with a white sauce or crumbed and browned. The original gives no quantities, so the ratios below are the working part of the job.
- The hinge: moisture and bindingToo little stock and the mould is dry and crumbly; too much and it will not set. For 1 lb of finely minced cooked veal, reckon on about 2 egg yolks and 4-6 tablespoons of stock, worked in gradually until the mixture just holds together when pressed in the hand. It should be firm, not sloppy.
- The mould goes in a water bath, not in the waterThe mould goes into a pan of water -- The recipe says only to put the closely covered mould into a pan of fast-boiling water; it does not say whether the water comes partway up the sides, as with a steamed pudding, or covers it. Either way the text then directs a gentle simmer, and an hour at a hard boil risks curdling the egg bind.
- Reheating cooked meatThe mixture starts out cold and already cooked, so the point of the hour is to set the egg and heat the whole through. A 1 lb mould should reach 165F at the centre; test with a probe rather than trusting the clock, and go longer for a larger mould as the recipe says.
- White stockAn unsalted veal or chicken stock, pale because the bones were not roasted first. Any light chicken stock works; avoid dark brown stock, which muddies both colour and flavour.
- "A brisk oven"For browning the crumbed version, a hot oven; period equivalences for 'brisk' vary but fall roughly in the 400-450F range, or use a few minutes under a hot grill. The mould is already hot, so this is colour only and takes minutes.
- Season firmlyCold cooked veal is bland and the mould is eaten in slices, so it needs more salt and pepper than the meat did the first time. The grated lemon rind is not optional decoration; it is what stops the dish tasting flat.
- Yield and serving1 lb of veal fills a pint mould and gives four modest servings. Let the mould stand five minutes before turning out, and serve warm rather than hot; cold, it slices cleanly for a lunch plate.
Moulded minced meat of this kind was one common middle-class answer to the problem Cassell's dictionary set itself over and over: what to do on Tuesday with the joint that was carved on Sunday. In a house without refrigeration, cooked meat had to be used up quickly, and the repertoire listed here — and rissoles, croquettes, curry, hash, minced collops — is essentially a taxonomy of second appearances. Veal in particular suited the treatment, being lean, pale and mild enough to carry nutmeg and lemon rind, two seasonings long associated with veal in English cookery. The choice offered at the end — plain with white gravy, or egged, crumbed and browned with brown sauce — is a small lesson in how the same preparation could be dressed up or down depending on whether it went to the family table or to company.