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Veal Cutlets and Tomatoes
Cut from the fillet a slice of veal half an inch thick, and weighing about a pound. Cut it into six pieces, and dredge a dessert-spoonful of flour upon them. Dissolve three ounces of butter in a stewpan, put in the cutlets, and let them remain until they are brightly browned on both sides. Then put with them a small slice of lean ham cut into dice, one small onion, four large ripe tomatoes, two anchovies cleaned and pounded to paste, the strained juice of half a large lemon, and a little salt, pepper, cayenne, and grated nutmeg. A wine-glassful of sherry or Madeira will greatly improve the gravy. Cover the saucepan closely, and simmer the ingredients as gently as possible till the veal is quite tender. Remember to remove the scum as it rises, and shake the saucepan frequently in order to keep the contents from burning. Time to simmer the veal, one hour and a quarter. Probable cost, 1s. to 1s. 2d. per pound. Sufficient for three persons.
A straightforward braise, but the timing belongs to an era of tougher, older veal. Read the clock instruction first and adjust before anything else.
- The simmering timeAn hour and a quarter will reduce half-inch slices of leg veal to dry threads. Modern milk-fed or rose veal from the leg needs 25 to 35 minutes at a bare tremble, covered, and is done when a fork slips in without resistance.
- "Fillet" of vealIn British butchery of this period the fillet is the leg, not the tenderloin. Ask for veal leg or top round cut half an inch thick; escalopes pounded thinner will overcook in minutes and are the wrong cut for this treatment.
- Spoon and glass measuresA dessert-spoonful is about 2 teaspoons of flour. A wine-glassful in Victorian cookery books is usually reckoned at about 2 fluid ounces, a scant quarter cup, though the measure was not standardised; use a dry or medium-dry sherry or Madeira, not a cream sherry.
- StewpanA straight-sided pan with a tight-fitting lid; the recipe calls it a saucepan a line later. A modern saute pan or wide braiser works; the width matters because the six pieces should sit in one layer to brown properly.
- AnchoviesTwo salted anchovies pounded to paste equals about two teaspoons of anchovy paste, or four oil-packed fillets mashed. They are the seasoning backbone here, not a fishy accent, so do not leave them out.
- TomatoesFour large ripe tomatoes, chopped, will supply nearly all the liquid once they collapse. Out of season, use a 14-oz tin of whole plum tomatoes, broken up, and cut back the lemon juice a little since tinned tomatoes are already sharp.
- Butter and scumThree ounces of butter for a pound of meat is generous by modern habit; two is enough. The scum the recipe tells you to lift is mostly separated butterfat and protein from the veal, and skimming it keeps the gravy clear.
- YieldOne pound of veal for three people is a Victorian portion size flanked by other dishes. Served today with rice or buttered noodles it feeds two comfortably, or three with bread and a green vegetable.
Veal was a common meat of the British middle-class kitchen in the nineteenth century, quoted at around a shilling to one and twopence a pound, and its mildness invited exactly this kind of heavily seasoned treatment: ham for savour, anchovy for salt and depth, lemon for sharpness, nutmeg and cayenne for warmth, and a glass of fortified wine to bind the gravy. The anchovy is the tell of an older English tradition, in which pounded salt fish did the work now done by stock cubes and soy sauce; it appears in gravies, ketchups and "cutlet" dishes throughout eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cookery. Tomatoes are the newer element. They only became a routine English kitchen ingredient in the second half of the nineteenth century, and recipes pairing them with veal or ham in a closed pan spread quickly once ripe fruit and tinned tomatoes were both reliably available. The recipe demonstrates a technique rather than a regional dish: brown, then stew gently in a covered pan with its own liquor.