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Veal, Jugged
Take from two to three pounds of lean veal, cut it into neat slices convenient for serving, and season with salt, cayenne, and powdered mace. Put the slices into an earthenware jar, pour over them half a pint of strong stock, and add a small bunch of sweet herbs and a roll of thin lemon-rind. Cover the jar closely by tying over it two or three folds of paper. Put it in a dripping-tin three-parts filled with boiling water, and place it in a moderately-heated oven. Let it remain till the meat is tender. Then remove the herbs and the lemon-rind; thicken the gravy with a little brown thickening, add the strained juice of half a lemon, and serve the veal on a hot dish with the gravy poured over it. Time to stew the meat, two hours and a half to three hours. Probable cost, 2s. 10d: Sufficient for five or six persons.
A water-bath braise in a sealed jar — essentially a low, moist oven stew that keeps the veal from drying out. The technique is sound; only the vessel and a few terms need translating.
- The hinge: keep the water bath topped upThe jar cooks by conduction from simmering water, not direct oven heat. Check the dripping-tin (a deep roasting pan) after the first hour and add more boiling water to keep it three-parts filled, as the recipe directs; if it boils dry the veal scorches and the gravy breaks.
- Oven temperatureA "moderately-heated oven" is usually taken as somewhere around 325-350F. With the water bath moderating the heat, 325F for two and a half to three hours should suit lean veal cut in slices.
- The jar and its coverAny lidded ovenproof stoneware or enamelled cast-iron pot works. The two or three folds of paper tied over the top were a seal against evaporation; a sheet of parchment under a tight lid does the same job.
- Half a pint of stockA British half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1 1/4 cups. Veal or light beef stock, well reduced; there is no other liquid in the dish, so weak stock gives weak gravy.
- Brown thickeningA Victorian standby: flour cooked in butter or dripping until nut-brown, kept on hand in a jar. Use a tablespoon each of butter and flour cooked to a light brown roux, whisked into the strained cooking liquid off the heat, then simmered a minute or two.
- Sweet herbs and mace"Sweet herbs" means a small bundle of aromatic herbs, typically parsley stalks, thyme, marjoram or savory and a bay leaf. Powdered mace is the dried aril, the lacy coat around the nutmeg seed; it is usually described as more delicate and less sweet than nutmeg. A scant 1/4 teaspoon for three pounds of meat is plenty.
- DonenessSliced veal shoulder or leg needs the full time to become tender; the meat should yield easily to a fork but still hold its shape. Test at two and a half hours rather than trusting the clock.
- ServingFive or six portions as written. Rice, plain boiled potatoes or a purée absorbs the lemon-sharpened gravy well; the dish is pale, so it wants something green alongside.
"Jugging" is a long-established English slow-cooking method — meat sealed in an earthenware jug or jar and set in a pan of boiling water, so it stews in its own juices with almost no liquid lost. Jugged hare is the famous example, but the same treatment was applied to pigeons, kidneys and, as here, veal. The appeal was practical in a coal-fired kitchen: the jar could sit in the oven or on the range beside other cooking with no attention beyond topping up the water, and the sealed vessel meant nothing dried out or took on smoke. Cassell's runs its veal entries together alphabetically, hence the long sequence. The costing of 2s. 10d. for five or six people was the sort of detail that sold such dictionaries to households running to a strict weekly budget.