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Veal, Gateau Of
No. 1. Take the remains of a roast fillet of veal and of the ham that has been served with it, and cut them into neat thin slices. Line an earthenware mould with thin slices of fat bacon, and fill it with layers of ham and veal, inter-mixed with slices of hard-boiled yolk of eggs. Sprinkle over each layer a seasoning of salt, white pepper, and finely-shredded parsley, with a few truffles cut up small, if they can be had conveniently. Pour clarified butter over all, then tie three or four folds of paper tightly over the top of the mould. Bake in a moderate oven, and turn it out in a shape when cold. Time to bake, one hour. No. 2. Mince finely two pounds of calf's liver with six ounces of fat bacon and a small onion. Dissolve a slice of butter in a stewpan, put in the onion and bacon, and, when the latter begins to soften, put in the liver, with a seasoning of pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg. Stir the mixture over the fire till the liver loses its red appearance, turn it out to cool, and beat it to a paste. Add four well-beaten eggs, with a few stewed mushrooms or truffles cut into pieces, if these are to be had. Line a basin with thin slices of fat bacon, put in the mince, and cover the top with bacon. Cover the basin closely, and bake the mince in the oven, or gently steam it over hot water till a skewer will pierce it easily. Let it remain till cold, trim neatly, and serve cut into slices.
Two cold moulded meat loaves, both descendants of the potted-meat tradition: No. 1 is a layered terrine of roast leftovers set in butter, No. 2 a baked liver pâté. Neither needs anything modern except a thermometer and a water bath.
- Moderate ovenBake at 325-350F. Both mixtures are set by gentle heat; a hot oven will curdle the eggs in No. 2 and squeeze the veal in No. 1 dry.
- Bake in a water bathNeither version says so, but standing the mould in a roasting tin of hot water reaching halfway up prevents the outside overcooking before the centre sets. This is standard terrine practice and the paper cover in No. 1 does much the same work of shielding the top.
- Doneness by thermometer, not skewerNo. 2 gives no baking time, only the skewer test, and a skewer that "pierces easily" is an unreliable guide with a bound egg mixture. Cook the liver pate to 160-165F in the centre.
- "A slice of butter"An unfixed measure; an ounce or so, cut off the block, is a reasonable reading. For No. 1, the clarified butter poured over all is a seal as well as a fat: you will likely need several ounces for a quart mould, enough to fill the gaps between the slices.
- Fat baconMost likely unsmoked (green) cured bacon cut into thin sheets. Supermarket streaky bacon works but is smoked and salty, so cut the added salt accordingly. Fresh fatback or barding fat from a butcher is a usable substitute.
- Truffles and mushroomsThe recipe treats truffles as optional for good reason. A tablespoon of dried porcini, soaked and chopped, gives more useful flavour in a pâté than a small quantity of preserved truffle.
- Chill before turning outBoth must cool completely in the mould, ideally overnight under a light weight, so the butter or the egg-bound liver firms enough to slice. Turning out warm gives a collapsed shape.
- Yield and keepingNo. 1 depends entirely on how much meat is left over, so size the mould to what you have; No. 2 makes about 2.5 lb of pate. Treat both as fresh cooked meat and eat within three or four days refrigerated; the butter seal in No. 1 was a keeping device for a cold larder, not a substitute for a fridge.
Gateau here means simply a cake in the older, shape-based sense: something built in a mould and turned out, with no sweetness implied. No. 1 is a leftovers recipe of a very Victorian kind, assuming a household that has just served a whole roast fillet of veal with ham and needs the cold remains to reappear at supper or on a luncheon buffet looking deliberate. The butter poured over the layers is the potting technique that preserved cooked meats before refrigeration, sealing the surface against air. No. 2 is closer to what a French kitchen would call a p t e de foie de veau, bound with egg and baked or steamed in a bacon-lined basin, and its presence in an English dictionary of cookery under a French name reflects how thoroughly British household cooking borrowed its vocabulary from the professional French repertoire.