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VEAL, FILLET OF (au Bechamel, second cooking)
The remains of a cooked fillet of veal may be served in this way. Cut a portion of meat from the centre of the veal, leaving a goodly portion untouched from which slices may be cut. Trim the joint, fill up any cracks or cuts there may be in it with forcemeat, and bind it securely. Put it into the oven for an hour or more till it is heated throughout, and be careful to baste liberally for fear it should be dry. Meanwhile mince finely the veal that was taken from the fillet, mix a little forcemeat with it, and stir into it as much good white sauce as will moisten it well. Put this mince into the hollow in the fillet, cover with finely-grated bread-crumbs, and drop a little clarified butter upon the crumbs. Place the meat again in the oven till the crumbs are brightly browned, and serve the veal on a hot dish, with bechamel or good white sauce round it. Time, one hour and a half.
This is a made-over dish: a second appearance for a large roast joint, hollowed out, refilled with a mince of its own trimmings and browned under crumbs. The hinge is moisture — veal is lean and a reheated joint dries out fast unless it is basted and covered.
- What "fillet of veal" means hereIn British usage this is the boned round of the leg, tied into a drum-shaped roast, not the tenderloin an American butcher would hand you. A boned, rolled veal leg roast of 3-4 lb is the closest modern equivalent; a boned turkey breast or a pork loin roast behaves similarly if veal is hard to source.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no oven description at all, only 'put it into the oven' and a total time of an hour and a half. In a modern oven, 325-350F will reheat the joint through, with a spell in a hot oven or a few minutes under the grill to colour the crumbs. Covering the joint with foil for the reheating hour, and removing it only for the browning, does the work the recipe assigns to liberal basting.
- ForcemeatThe Victorian default is veal forcemeat: breadcrumbs, shredded suet or butter, chopped parsley, lemon zest, a little grated onion, mace or nutmeg, bound with egg. Roughly 2 oz crumbs to 1 oz fat and one egg makes enough to caulk the joint and enrich the mince.
- Reheat properlyThe recipe allows 'an hour or more' for the joint to be heated throughout; at 325F that is about right for a cold joint, but check the centre reads 165F before it goes back in for browning. Cooked meat held warm and lukewarm is the risk here, not the reheating itself — bring it up promptly and serve it hot.
- The minceChop rather than blitz; a processor turns cooked veal to paste. Moisten with white sauce until it holds together but is not sloppy, or the filling will weep into the crumbs and stop them crisping.
- BechamelIn Victorian usage bechamel generally meant a white sauce built on veal or chicken stock with milk or cream, rather than the plain milk-and-roux version; this recipe treats it as interchangeable with 'good white sauce'. Something like a pint will serve both to bind the mince and to pour round the dish.
- Clarified butterButter with the milk solids removed, so it browns the crumbs without scorching. Melted butter poured off its white sediment does the job; ghee is a close substitute, though it is cooked further and tastes nuttier.
- YieldA 3-4 lb joint treated this way serves six to eight. Serve it carved in slices across the filled centre so each portion gets meat, mince and crumb.
History: Cassell's, like Mrs Beeton before it, gives space in its meat chapters to 'second cookings' — instructions for the reappearance of a joint that a middle-class household had bought whole. A large fillet of veal was an expensive purchase, and the cook was expected to get a hot roast and then a made dish or a mince out of it without ever setting recognisably tired meat on the table. The technique here, hollowing a joint and refilling it with its own chopped meat, is a small piece of theatre: the dish arrives looking like a roast rather than leftovers. Veal was more common in nineteenth-century British kitchens than it is now, being mild, pale and considered suitable for invalids and for rich white sauces of the kind bechamel provides.