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Veal Cutlets and Mushrooms
Cut one pound of veal cutlets in pieces about two inches square; sprinkle with minced parsley, then dip in beaten eggs and finely chopped mushrooms, and fry slowly for ten minutes. Serve piled up high on a dish, and covered with brown gravy. Garnish with little rolls of bacon.
A brisk late-Victorian supper dish that assumes you know what a brown gravy is and have one on the stove. The hinge is thickness: cut the veal thin or the ten-minute fry will dry it out.
- What "cutlets" means hereProbably not bone-in chops but slices from the leg or loin, of the kind a butcher now sells as veal escalope or scallopini; the recipe gives no thickness. A pound cut into two-inch squares gives a dozen or more pieces, depending how thick they are.
- The frying timeTen minutes over gentle heat implies fairly substantial pieces; the recipe does not say how thick. Thin escalope needs only 2 to 3 minutes a side in hot fat, or the egg coating toughens while the veal turns grey and dry. Judge by the coating setting to a firm gold, not the clock.
- Dry the mushroomsFinely chopped raw mushrooms carry a lot of water, which will slide the coating off the meat and steam rather than fry. Chop them fine, then squeeze in a cloth or dry them briefly in a pan and cool before mixing into the egg.
- The coatingThere are no breadcrumbs in this — egg and mushroom only, so it is a thin savoury skin rather than a crust. It sticks better if the veal is patted dry and lightly floured before the egg.
- Brown gravyMost likely a thickened brown stock rather than pan drippings from a roast. Reduced veal or beef stock thickened with browned flour, seasoned and strained, will answer; a good jus works.
- Rolls of baconStreaky bacon rashers, rind off, rolled into small cylinders, held with a skewer and fried or grilled until crisp enough to hold their shape.
- YieldA pound of veal serves two generously or three modestly. "Piled up high" is a period presentation instruction: the pieces are heaped on the dish, the gravy poured over, the bacon rolls added as garnish.
Veal held a position in the nineteenth-century English kitchen that it has largely lost: mild, pale, quick to cook, and considered suitable for invalids and light suppers alike, which made it the natural partner for the delicate handling that this recipe assumes. The premise behind a short entry like this one is a simple one — a thin slice, a coating, a fast fry, and a brown sauce made in advance from the stockpot that any well-run kitchen of the period kept going. The pairing with mushrooms is older than the book and reflects the way cultivated mushrooms became widely available in Britain over the course of the century, moving from a gentleman's hotbed or forcing house to the market stall. The instruction to serve the pieces "piled up high" belongs to an aesthetic in which height and a ring of garnish did the work that a plated composition does now.