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Veal Cutlets, Farce Of
Take some cutlets of an even thickness from the best end of a neck of veal, trim them in the usual way, flatten them, and spread over each one a covering of good veal forcemeat. Roll the meat round the bone, put a thin slice of fat bacon over each cutlet, and bind it with twine to prevent the forcemeat escaping. Butter a stewpan, and place a bed of sliced vegetables--carrot, turnip, onions, and celery--in the bottom. Lay the stuffed cutlets on these, and pour upon them as much stock as will half cover them. Let them simmer as gently as possible till quite tender. Take them up, place them in a circle on a dish, strain the gravy over, and serve very hot. Time to simmer the cutlets, about two hours.
A straightforward braise dressed up as something grander: stuffed, barded veal chops cooked slowly on a bed of aromatics. Two things need translating -- the cut, and the cooking time.
- Two hours is too longThe instruction assumes older, tougher veal and a barely trembling pot. Modern milk-fed or rose veal chops are tender to begin with, and 45 to 60 minutes at a bare simmer will do it. Past that the meat shreds and the forcemeat weeps out however well you tie it.
- "Best end of neck"This is the rack -- the rib section between the shoulder and the loin. Ask for veal rib chops, about 3/4 inch thick, or buy a rack and cut them yourself. Even thickness matters more than the exact weight, since they must cook at the same rate.
- Farce means forcemeatFrom the French for stuffing, not a separate preparation you buy. A veal forcemeat of this kind was usually minced veal with breadcrumbs, chopped suet or butter, grated lemon zest, parsley, thyme, mace, salt and pepper, bound with egg; the recipe itself specifies only 'good veal forcemeat'. Keep it firm rather than loose or it will squeeze out under the twine.
- Rolling round the boneFlatten the meat away from the bone with a mallet, spread the forcemeat on the flattened flap, then roll that flap back against the bone and tie. The bacon goes over the outside as barding -- it bastes the lean meat and holds everything in place. Use thinly sliced unsmoked streaky bacon or fatback; smoked bacon will dominate the sauce.
- The vegetable bedCarrot, turnip, onion and celery, sliced and buttered, are doing the work of a modern mirepoix. They keep the cutlets off the pan floor and flavour the stock. They are not meant to be served, though they are worth pressing through a sieve into the gravy if you want body.
- Stock and heatHalf-covering keeps this a braise rather than a poach. Veal or light chicken stock, unsalted if possible, since it will reduce. The recipe is a stovetop stewpan dish, but a covered pan in a low oven holds a gentler and steadier heat than a burner.
- The gravyStrained pan liquid as written is thin. Reduce it hard while the cutlets rest, then finish with a knob of butter; the period alternative was to thicken it with a little brown roux or arrowroot.
- YieldOne cutlet per person; the recipe does not say how many, so scale to the dish being arranged in a circle. Remove the twine before serving, which the original neglects to mention.
Farce is simply the French for stuffing -- from Latin farcire, to cram -- and its appearance in an English cookery dictionary marks how thoroughly professional kitchens in Britain had absorbed French vocabulary and method by the later nineteenth century. Cassell's was written for households that aspired to the standards of a trained cook without necessarily employing one, and this recipe is a good example of the ambition involved: an ordinary chop is boned out, stuffed, barded, tied and braised on aromatics, so that it arrives at table looking like a made dish rather than a piece of meat. Veal held a particular place in that cuisine because it is mild and takes on whatever is put with it, and because its bones and trimmings supplied the gelatinous stock on which the whole French repertoire of sauces rested. The circular arrangement on the dish, with the gravy strained over, belongs to the same service tradition -- food composed on the platter and carried in whole, rather than plated in the kitchen.