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Veal Cutlets in Aspic
Take some cutlets about three-quarters of an inch thick, put them in a saucepan with a pint of veal stock. Let them simmer very gently for an hour and a quarter, drain them, and let them cool. Have ready on ice some moulds sufficiently wide to hold a cutlet. Put a tea-spoonful of liquid aspic in each, just sufficient to run all over the bottom of the mould; put a very tiny sprig of parsley in the centre, and form a star with five or six tiny pieces of white of egg, about the thickness of a match. Put in another spoonful of aspic very carefully, so as not to disturb the decorations. When this is set, lay a cutlet in each mould, and fill it up with aspic. Leave them on ice till set. When wanted for table, dip each for a moment into boiling water and reverse the mould on to a plate. Serve garnished with fresh parsley. Probable cost, cutlets, 1s. to 1s. 2d. per pound.
A Victorian cold entrée: poached veal set in clear jellied stock and turned out of individual moulds. Nothing here is difficult, but the aspic and the chilling need attention the original assumes you already have.
- What a cutlet means hereVictorian veal cutlets were often boneless slices from the leg or fillet rather than rib chops, though this recipe does not say which. Leg or top round veal cut three-quarters of an inch thick, in pieces small enough to sit flat in a mould, suits the method; note that this is thicker than a modern escalope.
- The aspic is the whole dishAspic is strong veal or chicken stock, clarified with egg white and set with gelatine. It must be crystal clear or the decorations vanish. For an unmoulding set, count on at least one envelope of powdered gelatine (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) per 2 cups of stock, erring on the generous side; a well-made veal stock from knuckle and feet may already gel on its own.
- Simmer timeAn hour and a quarter is far longer than a 3/4-inch veal slice needs and will leave it dry. Fifteen to twenty minutes at a bare simmer, then cooling in the liquid, gives cooked veal that still slices cleanly — and the poaching liquid becomes the base for the aspic.
- Never let it boilOnce the stock is clarified, keep it below a simmer. A boil clouds the jelly and prolonged high heat weakens gelatine; rescuing a cloudy aspic means clarifying it again from scratch.
- Moulds and chillingDariole moulds, ramekins or a muffin tin all work. "On ice" means an ice bath or the refrigerator; each layer needs 20-30 minutes to set firm before the next goes in, or the parsley and egg-white star will float.
- The lukewarm-aspic rulePour each new layer barely liquid and only just above room temperature. Hot aspic melts the set layer beneath and drags the decoration out of place.
- UnmouldingA moment in hot water is right — three to five seconds, then wipe the mould dry and invert. Longer and the outer surface slumps into a glaze on the plate.
- Keep it coldThis is cooked meat in a gelatine jelly, served cold and eaten with no further heating. Hold it refrigerated until the moment of service and eat it within two days.
- Yield and costOne mould per person; four to six makes a light cold luncheon course with salad. The "1s. to 1s. 2d. per pound" is shillings and pence, a price note for a Victorian housekeeper rather than an instruction.
Cold moulded aspics were a fixture of late nineteenth-century British and French kitchens, where a clear jelly was proof of a well-run stockpot: only long, gentle simmering of veal knuckle, calf's feet and bone yielded stock that set firm and stayed transparent. Such dishes demonstrated two techniques at once — clarification and layered moulding — and chilled dishes carried real prestige in a house with an ice chest but no mechanical refrigeration. The tiny star cut from cooked egg white with a sprig of parsley at its centre is the standard decorative vocabulary of the period, repeated in cookery manuals for decades. Veal was the natural meat for it: mild in flavour, pale enough to show through the jelly, and gelatinous enough that the poaching liquid did much of the setting itself.