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Veal Cutlets, Stewed
Cut a piece of the fillet into three parts, and trim from them all the skin. Stew all the trimmings with carrot and onions to make a light gravy, then add a little broth or warm water; add spice if approved, put in the pieces of veal, and stew them for two hours. Dish the cutlets, thicken the gravy, and pour it over them.
A plain white braise of the sort Victorian cookery books used to teach the method rather than a finished dish. The instructions assume you already know how much liquid to use and how a stew should look, so the gaps are worth filling before you start.
- What "fillet" means hereIn British butchery of the period the fillet of veal is the top of the leg, not the tenderloin. Ask for thick slices from the leg or top round, about an inch, and expect three portions from the piece described.
- The two hours is too longLeg slices an inch thick are done in 45 to 60 minutes of gentle simmering; two hours will leave them dry and stringy. If you want a genuine two-hour braise, use veal shoulder or shin instead, cut in thick pieces.
- Keep it below a simmerThis is a pale stew and the point of it is tenderness. The liquid should barely tremble; a rolling boil tightens veal and clouds the gravy.
- How much liquidNo measured quantity is given; the recipe says only 'a little' broth or warm water added to the gravy drawn from the trimmings. Aim for enough total liquid to come about two-thirds up the meat, roughly 1 to 1½ cups for three slices in a snug pan, and keep the lid on.
- The trimming gravySweat the skin and scraps with the carrot and onion without colouring them, then add the broth. "Light" means pale, so resist browning; the trimmings give the gravy its body, and the skin its gelatine.
- "Spice if approved"Period cookery books commonly pair veal with a blade of mace, white peppercorns, a scrap of nutmeg and a bay leaf; a clove or two is as much as such recipes usually suggest.
- ThickeningStrain the gravy, then thicken with beurre manié (equal butter and flour kneaded together) whisked in off the boil, or a teaspoon of arrowroot slaked in cold water. Reduce first if it tastes thin; veal broth needs salt more than most.
- ServingServes three. Rice, plain boiled potatoes or forcemeat balls are accompaniments often suggested for stewed veal in period books, and a squeeze of lemon at the end lifts the finished sauce.
Cassell's belongs to the long era when veal was a familiar urban meat in Britain: dairy herds produced surplus bull calves, and the leg turned up in middle-class kitchens as cutlets, fricass ies and pies. The bareness of the entry suits its purpose hat trimmings and skin, stewed with root vegetables, will yield a gravy good enough to cook the meat in and then sauce it, a thrift lesson as much as a recipe. The insistence on a light gravy reflects the period's firm division between brown stews and white ones, with veal, chicken and rabbit almost always kept on the pale side and seasoned with mace and nutmeg rather than the darker spicing given to beef. "If approved" was standard cookbook phrasing of the day, leaving spice to the taste of the household rather than the author.