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Veal, Fillet of, with Oysters or Mushrooms
Remove the bone from a fillet of veal, and, without stuffing it, bind it very tightly with tape, so that there may be no hollow left in the centre. Roast in the usual way. Whilst it is before the fire, take about two dozen oysters, and scald them in their liquor. Beard them, and simmer the beards in about half a pint of good veal stock. Strain the sauce, add to it the oyster liquor and an equal quantity of cream or milk, and boil with a small piece of white thickening, together with a few drops of anchovy and a little cayenne, nutmeg, and lemon-juice. Take up the veal, quickly cut out about a pound from the centre, and keep the meat hot in the oven. Mince finely with the oysters the slice which has been cut out, put this into the sauce, and pour the whole into the cavity in the veal. Serve very hot. If liked, mushrooms stewed in butter may be substituted for the oysters.
A Victorian roast built for the carving table: the joint is roasted whole, hollowed out at the last minute, and the hollow filled with a creamed oyster mince. The timing is the whole trick.
- The hinge: work fast at the endThe cavity is cut and filled while everything is at serving heat, and the joint goes straight to the table. Have the sauce finished and the oysters chopped before the veal comes off the heat, or the meat cools while you assemble.
- Fillet of vealIn British usage of this period a "fillet" of veal is the round from the hind leg, not the tenderloin. Ask for a boned, tied leg roast of about 4-5 lb; a modern veal tenderloin is far too small to hollow out.
- Roasting temperature and time"Roast in the usual way" meant before an open fire. In an oven, 325-350F is a reasonable equivalent; cook to an internal 145-150F and rest, judging by thermometer rather than the clock, as timings vary with the shape of the joint. Veal is lean and dries quickly past that point.
- Half a pint, and "an equal quantity"A British half-pint is 10 fl oz. The recipe does not make clear whether the cream or milk is measured against the oyster liquor alone or against the strained stock and liquor combined; either reading gives a generous quantity of sauce, so reduce it to the consistency you want before it goes into the cavity.
- Bearding and the beardsTo beard an oyster is to trim off the dark frill of gill and mantle. Simmering those trimmings in stock is a genuine flavour step; strain them out and discard. Scald the oysters only until the edges ruffle, under a minute, and give the chopped meat no further cooking in the sauce beyond warming.
- White thickeningIn Victorian usage "white thickening" generally means a pale roux of butter and flour cooked without colour, though the phrase "a small piece" may point instead to a butter-and-flour paste worked cold. About a tablespoon of each would suit this quantity.
- Anchovy"A few drops of anchovy" means anchovy essence, a thin bottled sauce. Anchovy paste or a mashed fillet works; start with 1/4 teaspoon, since it salts as well as flavours.
- Mushroom versionIf substituting mushrooms, stew about 8 oz in butter until the liquid has gone, and build the sauce on veal stock alone; without oyster liquor it needs more reduction and a firmer hand with the lemon.
- Yield and carvingA joint of this size serves about eight. Carve across the grain and spoon the filling over each slice; the cavity holds a good deal of loose sauce, so use a rimmed dish.
Pairing oysters with beef and veal was standard economy in nineteenth-century Britain, not extravagance: oysters were cheap, plentiful and treated as a seasoning as much as a shellfish, which is why so many Victorian meat recipes tuck them into stuffings, sauces and puddings. This particular treatment belongs to the theatre of the Victorian dining room, where a joint arrived whole and was cut at the table; hollowing the roast and refilling it with a rich mince produced a surprise at carving. Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery was compiled for the large middle-class household of the later nineteenth century, and the recipe assumes a cook with both a fire capable of roasting a leg of veal and oysters readily to hand. The mushroom substitution may reflect a changing supply: overfishing and pollution drove British oyster prices sharply upward toward the end of the century, and by the 1900s the cheap oyster of Victorian kitchens had largely gone.