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Veal, Collared, or Galantine of Veal
Take a fine breast of veal. Put it into a stewpan with as much cold water as will cover it, and put with it an onion and a carrot, half a dozen peppercorns, a moderate-sized lump of sugar, and a pinch of salt. Bring the liquor quickly to the boil, skim carefully, then draw the saucepan back and let the veal simmer gently for two hours. Take it up, remove the bones and the gristle, and lay it, skin downwards, flat upon the table. Have ready prepared half a pound of lean ham cut into thin strips, four truffles cleaned and thinly sliced, and a forcemeat made with the hard-boiled yolks of twelve eggs pounded smoothly with three ounces of clarified butter, the grated rind of a lemon, as much grated nutmeg as will cover a sixpence, a salt-spoonful of white pepper, a tea-spoonful of powdered sweet herbs, two tea-spoonfuls of chopped parsley, and a tea-spoonful of anchovy. Rub the veal quickly across with a piece of freshly-cut garlic, sprinkle a little salt upon it, and rub the strained juice of a lemon into it. Spread the egg forcemeat equally over, and lay the truffle and ham upon this in alternate lines. Roll the veal up very tightly, bind it with tape, and tie it in a cloth. Sew it up securely. Put it again into the liquor in which it was simmered, add the bones and trimmings, let it boil up, then simmer as gently as possible three hours longer. Let it remain in the liquor half an hour after it is taken from the fire. Put it on a board, lay a large dish upon it, place a heavy weight on top, and let the veal remain until cold. Brush over with liquid glaze, and garnish with stiff aspic jelly cut into cubes, diamonds, etc. If preferred, good veal forcemeat may be used instead of the egg forcemeat, and the truffles may be omitted. Very good soup may be made of the liquor in which the veal was stewed. Time, two hours to simmer the veal the first time, three hours the second. Probable cost, 1s. 2d. per pound.
A two-stage boiled and pressed roll of veal, the sort of cold buffet centrepiece a Victorian household made a day ahead. Nothing here is difficult, but the timings, the binding and the cooling all need translating.
- The hinge: roll it tightA galantine that is loosely rolled will fall apart when sliced, because there is nothing but the set gelatine and the compression to hold it. Roll from the long side with real force, tie at 1-inch intervals with butcher's twine, then wrap firmly in a double layer of muslin or cheesecloth and tie both ends before it goes back in the pot.
- The cutA whole boned breast of veal runs roughly 4-6 lb and will serve a dozen or more as a cold cut. Butchers rarely display it, so order it ahead. Note that the recipe simmers the breast on the bone for the first two hours and bones it afterwards; keep the bones, since they go back into the second simmer to strengthen the stock for the aspic.
- Five hours of simmeringTwo hours before boning and three after is not excessive for a rolled breast, but the water must never do more than tremble. A rolling boil bursts the roll and clouds the liquor you want for the aspic. Hold the pot at 180-190F.
- Sixpences and salt-spoons"As much nutmeg as will cover a sixpence" is a scant 1/8 teaspoon. A salt-spoon is about 1/4 teaspoon. A teaspoonful of anchovy means anchovy essence or paste; two mashed fillets do the same work.
- The egg forcemeatTwelve hard-boiled yolks pounded with 3 oz clarified butter makes a rich, crumbly paste rather than a bound stuffing. Work it in a food processor while the butter is soft, and spread it on the warm veal so it goes on evenly. The alternative veal forcemeat the book offers is easier to handle and slices more cleanly.
- TrufflesFour sliced truffles is a Victorian luxury flourish. Preserved truffle peelings, or sliced brown mushrooms sauteed dry and seasoned, give the dark contrasting lines the pattern depends on without the cost.
- Glaze and aspic"Liquid glaze" is the cooking liquor reduced to a syrupy, sticky meat glaze and brushed on warm. For the aspic, strain and degrease the remaining liquor, clarify it if you want it clear, and set it with gelatine — the bones alone may not give a firm enough set in a modern pot.
- CoolingPress it under a weighted dish as directed, but do the pressing in the refrigerator, not on the kitchen table overnight. Six to eight hours under weight gives a dense roll that carves in clean rounds; it keeps three or four days chilled.
"Collared" meat is the older English name: a piece of flesh boned, seasoned, rolled, bound and boiled, then pressed cold, from the seventeenth century onward, applied to breast of veal, pork, eel, salmon and beef flank alike. "Galantine" is the French term Victorian cookery writers increasingly preferred for the same construction, and it is often said to derive from Old French forms connected with geline, a hen, the bird having been the classic subject, rather than settled etymology; the usual line traces it instead to Old French galatine, from a medieval Latin word for a jelly sauce. Cassell's, writing for a middle-class household with servants and a cold larder rather than refrigeration, valued dishes of this kind precisely because they were made a day ahead, sliced without carving skill, and stood on the sideboard for supper or luncheon. The closing notes are characteristic of the book's economy: the bones go back into the pot, the truffles may be omitted, the liquor becomes soup, and the price is quoted to the penny per pound.