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Veal, Knuckle of, Boiled
A knuckle of veal is generally boiled, and forms a most wholesome and nourishing dish. It should be washed, then put into a stewpan, covered with cold water, boiled, then simmered gently and skimmed frequently for from two hours and a half to three hours, or till the gristle is quite tender, but not till the flesh will leave the bone. On account of its sinewy nature this joint needs to be well cooked. Either plain melted butter or parsley and butter may be poured over it and served with it. Egg sauce, onion sauce, and white sauce are also suitable accompaniments. Bacon and greens or mashed turnips and potatoes are usually eaten with knuckle of veal, and the dish should be garnished with parsley, lemon-rind, and forcemeat balls. Time, a knuckle of veal weighing about six pounds, two hours and a quarter. Probable cost, 7d. per pound.
A plainly cooked veal shank, treated as a poaching job rather than a boil. The instructions are sound; the main things needing translation are the cut, the sauces, and the contradictory times.
- What a knuckle isThe knuckle is the lower part of the leg — what a butcher now sells as veal shank or shin, bone in. A whole six-pound joint is unusual today; two or three cross-cut shank pieces of about 2 lb each will behave the same way, though they will cook faster than a whole knuckle.
- Never actually boil itThe hinge of the dish. Bring it to the boil once to raise the scum, then hold it at a bare tremble. Veal shank driven at a rolling boil turns stringy and the collagen-rich sinew tightens instead of melting. Water should barely move.
- The two times disagreeThe body of the entry says two and a half to three hours; the tailpiece says two and a quarter for a six-pound joint. Cook to the description, not the clock — the gristle around the bone should be translucent and yielding but the meat still holding to the bone. Reckon on 2½ to 3 hours at a simmer for a whole knuckle, considerably less for cut shanks.
- "Melted butter" is not melted butterIn Victorian English cookery melted butter means a flour-thickened butter sauce, roughly a roux with water or milk — the everyday white sauce of the period. Parsley and butter is the same sauce with chopped parsley stirred through. Simply pouring warm butter over the joint will not give what the book intends.
- Egg sauce and onion sauceBoth are variations on the same base: egg sauce is that butter sauce with coarsely chopped hard-boiled egg folded in; onion sauce is the base enriched with onions boiled soft and chopped or sieved. Either suits the mild, faintly gelatinous meat.
- Keep the cooking liquidThe book says nothing about it, but a veal knuckle produces one of the finest gelatinous stocks in the kitchen. Salt the water only lightly during cooking so the strained liquor is usable afterwards for soup or for the sauce itself.
- Forcemeat ballsThe garnish assumed by the entry is a veal forcemeat — breadcrumbs, suet, lemon zest, herbs, bound with egg — rolled small and poached or fried. They are optional; the lemon rind is part of the garnish the book specifies.
- Yield and costA six-pound knuckle, being largely bone and sinew, serves about six with the bacon, greens and potatoes the book expects alongside. "7d. per pound" is seven pence in pre-decimal currency, which marked veal knuckle as one of the cheaper joints of its day.
The knuckle was the thrifty end of the veal carcass, and English cookery books of the later nineteenth century treat it as such: cheap by the pound, generous in gelatine, and reliable for a family dinner or an invalid's broth. The insistence on "wholesome and nourishing" language reflects a period view of veal as light, digestible meat suited to the delicate, an idea generally traced to older humoral notions of white meats being cooling and easy on the stomach. The bacon and greens served with it are practical as much as traditional: boiled veal is mild to the point of blankness, and salt pork or bacon supplies what the joint itself lacks.