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VEAL IN JELLY (a breakfast or luncheon dish)
Take two pounds of lean veal from the breast or fillet. Cut the veal into pieces an inch square and some ham into thin slices. Line a stewpan with thin slices of fat bacon, put in the veal and ham, and add a calf' foot, the veal bones broken up small, two onions, two carrots, a parsnip, a bunch of sweet herbs, half a blade of mace, two inches of lemon-rind, and a little pepper and salt. Pour a pint of veal stock or water into the pan, let the liquor boil, skim carefully, and let it simmer as gently as possible till the meat is tender. Take up the veal, and arrange it neatly in a mould. Strain the gravy through a jelly-bag, boil quickly for a few minutes, then pour it over the meat, and turn it out when cold.
A cold moulded veal, set in its own clarified stock. The whole dish turns on the gelatine, which in the original comes from a calf's foot and the broken veal bones rather than a packet.
- The calf's foot is the hingeWithout it the liquor will not set firmly enough to unmould. If you cannot get a calf's foot, ask a butcher for split veal knuckle or trotter, or add powdered gelatine to the strained, reduced stock — roughly one envelope (about 7 g, a scant tablespoon) per cup of liquid for a jelly firm enough to turn out and slice.
- Simmer time"Till the meat is tender" is likely to mean something in the region of 2 to 3 hours at a bare tremble for breast; fillet cubes will be tender sooner, so lift them out and let the bones and foot continue if the stock is thin. The liquid must never boil hard or the jelly will be cloudy.
- A blade of maceA piece of the dried outer casing (aril) of nutmeg, not ground mace. Half a blade is a small shard; about 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg or mace is the nearest equivalent, though the recipe itself adds the mace at the beginning.
- Jelly-bagA conical flannel or muslin bag hung over a bowl. A fine sieve lined with a double layer of damp muslin does the same job. Let it drip; pressing the solids pushes fat and sediment through and clouds the set.
- Degrease before settingThe fat bacon lining and the veal bones both render generously. Skim while hot, then chill the strained stock briefly and lift the solid cap before the final boil, or the finished jelly will carry an opaque greasy layer at the top of the mould.
- Season for coldCold jelly tastes flatter than hot broth. Taste the reduced liquor when it is warm and salt it a little beyond what seems right, and check the lemon-rind and pepper at the same point.
- Mould and chillingTwo pounds of veal plus the stock will need a mould of about 2 1/2 to 3 pints — a large loaf tin or charlotte mould. It needs 6 hours in the refrigerator, better overnight. Dip the mould briefly in hot water to turn out.
- Yield and keepingServes six as a breakfast or luncheon dish, with bread and pickles or a sharp salad. Keep it refrigerated and eat within three days; the jelly softens and weeps as it ages.
Cold moulded meats in aspic were a fixture of the Victorian and Edwardian breakfast and luncheon table, where a joint was expected to reappear in a second, more elegant guise. The technique depends on collagen: calves' feet, knuckles and cracked bones were the household source of gelatine before it was widely sold in leaves and packets, and cookery books of this period commonly specify a foot where a modern recipe would specify an envelope. Veal was a natural meat for it, being pale, mild and rich in the connective tissue that sets a clear jelly. The dish also reflects the practical logic of a kitchen without refrigeration, where cooked meat sealed in jelly kept better and travelled to the sideboard cold as a matter of course.