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VEAL IN JELLY (another way)
Take the bones from a breast or fillet of veal, and cut the meat into slices an inch thick and the size and shape of the mould which is to be used. Sprinkle each slice with a savoury powder made by mixing two tea-spoonfuls of salt with one tea-spoonful of white pepper, and one tea-spoonful of powdered mace. Pour a tea-cupful of veal stock or water in the bottom of the mould, and fill it with alternate layers of veal and thin slices of ham: let veal form the undermost and uppermost layers. Press the meat down tightly with a plate or dish a trifle smaller than the top of the mould, so that the gravy may run into it. Place a weight on the dish, and put the mould in a moderate oven till the veal is tender. Take it out, and let the weight remain upon it till it is cold. Put the bones and trimmings of the veal into a saucepan with a handful of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, two blades of mace, two square inches of thin lemon-rind, half a salt-spoonful of peppercorns, and two quarts of water. Let the liquor boil, skim carefully, then simmer gently for three hours. Strain it, let it get cold, and clear it from fat. It ought to form a stiff jelly, but if not sufficiently firm it should either be boiled a little longer or it should have a little isinglass or gelatine dissolved in it. Mix a pint of this jelly with the gravy that flowed into the dish with which the meat was pressed, add a table-spoonful of ketchup, and pour the liquor over the veal. Let it get cold and stiff, then turn it out in a shape upon a dish, and garnish with parsley. Cut it into slices when serving. The gravy should, of course, be made the day before it is wanted. Time to bake the veal, three hours. Probable cost, veal, 1s. 1d. per pound.
A pressed veal loaf set in its own stock — essentially a home-made galantine, built over two days. The hinge is the stock: if it does not set firm on its own, the whole dish collapses when turned out, so test a spoonful on a cold saucer before you commit it.
- Moderate ovenRead this as 325-350F (160-175C). The mould is packed tight and weighted, so heat travels slowly; three hours at that temperature will bring a breast of veal to the point where it yields to a fork.
- Teacupful and salt-spoonfulA Victorian teacupful is about 5 fl oz, so roughly half a cup of stock in the base of the mould. A salt-spoon is a quarter teaspoon, making "half a salt-spoonful of peppercorns" about an eighth of a teaspoon — a dozen corns or so.
- Fillet of vealIn British butchery of the period this means meat from the leg, not a tenderloin. Boned breast is the cheaper and better choice here: more collagen, which is what makes the pressed loaf hold together.
- IsinglassIsinglass is clarified sturgeon swim-bladder, long since displaced by leaf and powdered gelatine. If the stock sets soft, allow roughly two teaspoons of powdered gelatine per pint of liquid, bloomed and dissolved warm.
- KetchupNot tomato. In a Victorian English kitchen ketchup means mushroom or walnut ketchup, a thin dark savoury condiment closer to a mild soy or Worcestershire in effect. Substitute mushroom ketchup if you can find it, or a teaspoon of Worcestershire.
- The weight and the escaping gravyThe plate must sit inside the rim of the mould so juices rise around it and collect on top; that liquid is a concentrated part of the finished jelly and should not be discarded. Two or three pounds of weight is enough.
- CoolingThe instruction to leave the weighted mould until cold assumes a cold larder. Cool it at room temperature no longer than about two hours, then move it, weight and all, to the refrigerator overnight. The same applies to the stock before you lift the fat.
- Skimming the stockThree hours at a bare simmer, skimmed at the start and never allowed to boil hard, gives a clear jelly. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat and you will get a cloudy set that looks grey when turned out.
- YieldA cold-table or luncheon dish rather than a dinner course; the quantity depends entirely on the size of breast and of mould used. It keeps three or four days refrigerated.
Pressed and jellied meats sat at the heart of the Victorian cold table, where a moulded loaf could be made ahead, turned out whole for effect, and sliced through the week without reheating. The technique is old kitchen economy: veal is bland and lean but its bones and trimmings are unusually rich in collagen, so the same animal supplies both the meat and the stock that sets around it — nothing is bought in except the ham and the seasoning. Mace, lemon-rind and a spoonful of mushroom ketchup are the standard nineteenth-century English seasoning grammar for pale meats, giving warmth and savour without colouring the jelly. Dishes of this kind faded with the arrival of reliable refrigeration and commercial cold cuts, which made the labour hard to justify.