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Veal, Loin of, Chump End, Roasted
Make an incision in the skin round the thick part of the joint with a sharp knife and in this put some good veal forcemeat. Grease a sheet of white paper, wrap it round the joint, then put it down before a clear fire, and rather close to it. At the end of a quarter of an hour withdraw it to a distance, and let it roast very gently till done enough. Baste liberally. Half an hour before it is taken up remove the paper, dredge a little flour upon the meat, and sprinkle over it a little salt and the strained juice of a lemon. Let the veal brown brightly. Mix a slice of butter very smoothly with a dessert-spoonful of flour. Pour upon this a cupful of boiling water, add a little salt, and boil the sauce for a few minutes. Pour the fat out of the dripping-tin, leaving the brown gravy untouched. Stir the melted butter into this, strain it into the saucepan, and again let it boil. Put the veal the broad side downwards on a dish. Pour part of the gravy over it; put the rest in a tureen, and serve immediately. Send a cut lemon to table on a plate, and let boiled tongue, ham, bacon, or pickled pork accompany the veal. Time to roast the veal, twenty-five minutes to the pound. Probable cost, 10d. per pound.
A spit-roast written for an open fire, easily translated to an oven once you understand what the paper wrapping and the two-stage heat were doing.
- The chump endThis is the rear portion of the loin, next to the leg, containing the hip bone. Ask a butcher for a chump end of veal loin, bone in, or substitute a boned and rolled loin of about 4 lb.
- Fire to ovenThe first quarter-hour close to a clear fire, still in its paper, drives the heat in hard; the long gentle finish cooks it through. In an oven, roughly 425F for the first 15-20 minutes and about 325F for the remainder will reproduce the two-stage heat; the book gives no temperatures.
- TimingTwenty-five minutes to the pound gives well-done veal by Victorian standards. Modern practice roasts veal to an internal 145-150F and rests it 15 minutes, which on a 4 lb joint is closer to 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours total.
- The greased paperThis is the hinge of the recipe. Veal is lean and dries out badly, so the buttered paper acts as a shield until the last half hour, when it comes off for colour. Buttered parchment or foil does the same job in an oven; remove it for the final 30 minutes as directed.
- Basting"Baste liberally" is not optional with veal. There is little intramuscular fat, so lay a few slices of bacon or a sheet of pork back fat over the joint if your dripping-tin runs dry.
- ForcemeatA typical Victorian veal forcemeat is breadcrumbs, chopped suet or butter, lemon zest, parsley, herbs and egg to bind. Any bread-and-herb stuffing works; push it into the pocket cut under the skin rather than into the cavity.
- The gravy"A slice of butter" means roughly 1 oz. Butter and flour worked smooth cold, then let down with boiling water, is a beurre manié rather than a cooked roux, so give it the few minutes' boil specified or it will taste of raw flour.
- Yield and accompanimentsA 4 lb chump end serves six to eight. The salted meat sent alongside — tongue, ham, bacon or pickled pork — is there because veal is mild to the point of blandness; keep at least one of them.
Veal held a particular place in the Victorian kitchen: plentiful in a dairying country where surplus bull calves had little other use, and prized for its pale delicacy, but so lean that almost every recipe for it is really a recipe for keeping it moist. Hence the buttered paper, the liberal basting, the stuffing pushed under the skin, and the frequent instruction to serve it with something cured and fatty. The chump end was the cheaper and bonier half of the loin. The "probable cost, 10d. per pound" is characteristic of Cassell's, which quoted prices throughout so that a cook or housekeeper could plan against a weekly allowance.