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Veal Cones
Mince the veal with a little ham or tongue, and form it into a paste as for VEAL COLLOPS, MINCED. If liked, this paste may be moistened with cream instead of stock. Form it into cones about three inches high. Brush these over with beaten egg, dredge bread-crumbs thickly upon them, and fry them in hot fat till they are brightly browned, or bake them in a brisk oven. Put a layer of fried bread-crumbs in a dish, place the cones upon them, and send tartar sauce, or, if preferred, brown sauce, to table with them.
A Victorian way of remaking cold cooked veal, and it depends entirely on a cross-reference the book assumes you have already read. Get the mince stiff enough to stand up and the rest follows.
- The hinge: the paste must be stiff and coldFor minced veal collops the meat is chopped very fine and moistened with stock or, as this recipe allows, cream; the book's own version likely binds it further, but this page does not say with what. Whatever the binding, if it is loose the cones slump in the fat. Chill the mixture at least an hour, shape, then chill the shaped cones again before egging and crumbing.
- The veal is already cookedThe veal is probably already cooked -- this reads as a leftovers dish, built on cold roast or braised veal rather than raw meat, though the recipe does not say so outright. Raw mince would need far longer cooking than a few minutes in fat and would shrink and weep.
- Ham or tongueBoth are there for salt and colour, not bulk; the recipe specifies only 'a little' and gives no proportion. Pressed ox tongue is now a deli item rather than a kitchen staple; good cooked ham or a little prosciutto does the same work.
- "A brisk oven"A hot oven, roughly 400-425F. Brush or spray the crumbed cones with melted butter or oil first, and give them 15-20 minutes, turning once, or they brown on one face only.
- Frying temperature350-375F in deep fat. The filling is cooked already, so you are only setting the crust: two to three minutes to a deep gold is enough. Hotter and the crumbs darken before the centre warms through.
- "Dredge bread-crumbs thickly"Dry white crumbs, not fresh, and not panko unless you want a different texture. Press them on firmly, rest ten minutes, then repeat the egg and crumb for a crust that holds the cone shape.
- The bed of fried crumbsCoarse crumbs fried in butter until crisp and drained. Their job is to keep the cones from sitting in released fat, and to give the dish a base to stand on. Sprinkle a little more around the cones at the last minute.
- YieldAbout a pound of cooked veal, plus binding, should make roughly eight to ten three-inch cones, enough for four as a first course. Serve the sauce separately, as directed, so the crust stays crisp.
Cassell's belongs to the great age of the English "remake" - the second appearance of a roast, disguised well enough to pass as an entr he candidate, since a leg or shoulder was large, mild, and dried out badly if simply sliced and served again. Shaping bound mince into a fixed geometric form and crumbing it is the croquette method taken from French practice, and Victorian cookery books ran through a range of shapes: balls, cutlets, pyramids, cones, sometimes finished with a paper frill or a stalk of macaroni to complete the illusion. Tartar sauce is offered here, though brown sauce appears as an equal alternative. The recipe's brevity is characteristic of the dictionary format, which cross-referenced relentlessly rather than repeat a basic preparation - the reader was expected to keep a finger in the page for veal collops.