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Veal, Knuckle of, Soup
Take a knuckle of veal weighing about six pounds, and break the bone in three or four places. Put half a pound of bacon, in slices half an inch thick, at the bottom of a stewpan, place the meat on this, and add a carrot, a turnip, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a few sticks of celery, two large onions with three cloves stuck in each, and a tea-spoonful of peppercorns. Barely cover the ingredients with cold water, let the liquor boil, skim it, then draw the saucepan to the side, and let its contents simmer gently till the veal is quite tender. Take out the meat, strain the soup, and let it stand till cold. Before serving, remove the cake of fat from the top. If there is too much soup to use at once, a little may be served at a time, and it may be thickened one day with vermicelli, another day with macaroni, and a third day with rice. The veal may be cut up into neat pieces and served with peas as a ragout (see VEAL, KNUCKLE OF, RAGOUT OF), or, if preferred, it may be served in the soup. Time, four hours to simmer the soup. Probable cost, knuckle of veal, 7d. per pound. Sufficient for ten or twelve persons.
A plain white stock built on a veal shank, meant to be made once and drawn on for several days. Everything depends on keeping the pot below a boil after the first skimming.
- The hinge: never let it boil againOnce skimmed, draw the pan to the side and hold it at a bare tremble for the full four hours, as the recipe directs. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat and churns proteins through the liquid, giving a cloudy stock that straining will not fully clear.
- What a knuckle isThe veal shank, bone and all, from the lower leg. A 6 lb piece is a large hind shank; two smaller ones will do. Ask the butcher to saw rather than crack the bone in three or four places, which exposes the marrow without scattering splinters.
- The baconVictorian bacon could be smoked or 'green' (unsmoked), and the recipe does not say which; a fatty unsmoked streaky is the safer reading, since heavy smoke will dominate a delicate veal stock. Salt pork or fresh pork belly is a reasonable substitute.
- Onions with clovesThe clove-studded onion is the classic oignon piqué. Three cloves per onion is plenty for a pot this size; more turns the broth medicinal.
- Start cold, skim onceCold water and a slow rise bring the scum to the surface in a single raft. Skim it off before the vegetables cloud things, and do not stir the pot afterwards.
- SeasoningNo salt is called for, which is correct for a stock that will be used several ways. Season each portion as it is reheated and served.
- Chilling and the fat cakeStraining into a shallow bowl and chilling overnight gives a clean disc of fat to lift off, and a broth that sets to a firm jelly from the shank gelatin. The jelly is a sign of a good extraction, not a fault.
- Serving over several daysRefrigerate the strained broth and use it within three or four days, bringing each portion to a full boil as it is reheated. Cook the vermicelli, macaroni or rice in the broth just before serving rather than storing it in the pot, where it goes to paste.
- YieldTen to twelve as written, as a first course. The meat pulled from the shank is a separate dish in its own right, which is why the book sends you to the ragout entry.
A knuckle of veal was an inexpensive cut on a Victorian butcher's block, priced here at 7d. a pound, and this recipe is really an exercise in economy dressed as a soup: one joint yields a clear stock for several days' dinners plus a platter of meat for a ragout. The method is essentially the French fond blanc veal bone, no browning, aromatic vegetables and an oignon pique which became the base for white soups and sauces. The instruction to thicken it with vermicelli one day, macaroni the next and rice the third belongs to a period before refrigeration was general, when a large pot of stock had to be justified by repeated reheating, and only a little served at a time.