Home › The Principles of Cookery › VEAL CUTLETS (a la Maintenon or en Papillotes)
VEAL CUTLETS (a la Maintenon or en Papillotes)
This mode of dressing cutlets is said to have been invented by Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV's favourite, to tempt the failing appetite of the king when he was advanced in age. Take some cutlets from the best end of the neck of veal. Saw off the chine-bone, trim away the skin and gristle, shorten the rib-bones, and pare away the meat from the tip of the bones. Fry the cutlets in butter or lard till they are lightly browned on both sides. Take them up, drain them, and put them aside. Put a small bunch of sweet herbs into a stewpan with a little minced shallot a roll of thin lemon-rind, and a slice of fat bacon cut into dice. Pour upon these ingredients a pint of strong veal stock, or veal stock with a little gelatine dissolved in it. Add the cutlets, salt and pepper as required, cover the saucepan closely, and let its contents simmer very gently till the veal is tender. Take up the cutlets, and set them aside to cool; strain the liquor, and set that aside also. It ought to from a stiff jelly when cold. When the cutlets are wanted, take as many sheets of stiff white paper as there are cutlets. Cut away the corners to give them something of the shape of a heart, but leave them sufficiently large to enfold the cutlets. Oil the paper on both sides. Place a cutlet on each paper, spread a little of the sauce upon it, then fold it in the paper, and twist the edges securely, so that the sauce cannot escape. Broil the cutlets thus enclosed in paper over a gentle fire, or, if preferred, place them in a brisk oven till they are heated thoroughly, and the envelopes are lightly browned. Dish them in the papers with fried parsley as a garnish. Time to fry the cutlets, about a quarter of an hour. To broil them, a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, from 1s. to 1s. 2d.
Two separate operations with a cooling stage between them, which makes this a good dish to start a day ahead. The point of the paper case is that it traps the steam and the jellied sauce together, so the seal matters more than anything else here.
- The sealFold and crimp the parchment edges tightly in overlapping pleats, working around the heart shape from the point. If the case opens in the oven the sauce runs out and the veal dries; a paperclip or a couple of staples on the folded rim are legitimate insurance.
- Use parchment, not oiled writing paperBaking parchment does the job the oiled "stiff white paper" was meant to do and browns without scorching. Foil works but will not colour or crisp, and you lose the look of the thing at table.
- The cutThis is a rack of veal cut into rib chops. Ask the butcher to saw off the chine bone and french the rib bones for you; that is all the trimming instruction amounts to. Allow one chop per person, about 6-8 oz each.
- Browning timeA quarter of an hour in the pan is far too long for a chop that will then be braised and reheated. Take it to 2-3 minutes a side over fairly high heat for colour only, then move on.
- The braiseA pint here is an imperial pint, 20 fl oz. Keep it at a bare shiver, not a boil, for roughly 45 minutes to an hour until a knife slides into the meat easily. Veal chops toughen if the liquid rolls.
- Getting the jellyModern stock rarely sets on its own unless you have used veal bones with plenty of knuckle. Either reduce the strained liquor hard until it coats a spoon and sets firm when chilled, or take the recipe at its word and bloom a teaspoon of powdered gelatine into it. A stiff, sliceable sauce is what lets you spread it on the chop without it leaking.
- "A brisk oven"425-450F. Ten to twelve minutes is enough to heat the chop through, melt the jelly and puff and colour the paper.
- AromaticsA "bunch of sweet herbs" is a bouquet of parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf, tied. The "roll of thin lemon-rind" is a pared strip of zest with no white pith. Fat bacon cut into dice is closest to unsmoked lardons or diced pancetta.
- Fried parsleyFlat-leaf or curly parsley, thoroughly dry, dropped into 350F fat for 15-20 seconds until it stops sputtering. Wet parsley in hot fat spits violently.
The name attaches this dish to Françoise d'Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon, governess to Louis XIV's illegitimate children who became his secret second wife in the 1680s. The claim that she devised the paper case to coax an ageing king to eat is a kitchen tradition rather than anything documented, and Cassell's is careful to write "is said to have been"; dishes named "à la Maintenon" more plausibly honour a famous figure than record her invention. What is genuine is the technique: en papillote, cooking in a sealed paper envelope, was well established in French practice by the eighteenth century, and the heart-shaped case cut with the corners trimmed is exactly as chefs still cut it. The two-stage method here — braise, chill to a jelly, then reheat in paper — is a service kitchen's solution, letting the hard work be done in advance and the final ten minutes happen to order, which is also why the dish suited a household with a cook and a dinner hour to keep.