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Veal, Loin of, Roast
Make an incision in the flap or skirt of the loin, and into the cavity thus made, just over the ends of the bones, put some good veal forcemeat. Roll in the flap to cover the kidney-fat, and skewer it down, or bind with string. Wrap the loin in well-greased sheets of paper, and put it down, at a moderate distance, before a clear fire. Baste liberally. Half an hour before it is done enough take away the paper, and let the veal brown. If the paper is not put on, the joint must be well dredged with flour soon after it is put to the fire. When done enough, put the veal on a hot dish, and pour either clear brown gravy or good brown sauce over it. Garnish the dish with sliced lemon and fried forcemeat balls. Ham, tongue, bacon, or pickled pork should be served with it. In some places egg sauce and brown gravy are served with roast veal. If the loin is a very large one, the kidney should be skewered back for a while to ensure its being sufficiently cooked. Care should be taken that the joint is hung before the fire in such a way that both ends will be equally done. Time, a large loin of veal, about three hours. Probable cost, 11d. per pound.
This is a spit-roasted joint written for an open fire, and the whole method has to be translated to an oven. Veal loin is lean and unforgiving, so the internal temperature matters more than the three-hour clock.
- Loin of veal, and what to ask forThe joint here is the whole bone-in loin with the kidney and its fat still attached, plus the flap (skirt) folded over. A butcher will need notice; a boned and rolled veal loin, or a rack, is the practical substitute and cooks considerably faster.
- Fire to oven"A moderate distance, before a clear fire" becomes a 350F oven, or 425F for the first 20 minutes if you want colour before dropping to 350F. Put the joint on a rack over a tray so the fat and juices collect for gravy.
- Timing and temperatureIgnore the three hours unless the joint truly is 8-10 lb. Roast to an internal 145-150F at the thickest point of the loin, then rest 15-20 minutes; that is roughly 18-20 minutes per pound for bone-in loin, less for boned and rolled. Veal past 160F turns dry and grainy.
- The paper wrapGreased paper is a fat-basted shield against radiant heat. Buttered parchment, or foil loosely tented, does the same job in an oven; remove it for the last 30 minutes as directed so the surface browns. If you skip it, the flour dredge is what protects the meat, and it needs frequent basting.
- The kidneyThe kidney sits in a thick jacket of suet and cooks slower than the surrounding meat. Skewering it back, exposed to the heat, is the fix. If your butcher has removed it, nothing is lost from the roast itself.
- Veal forcemeatThe period stuffing is breadcrumbs, chopped suet or bacon fat, grated lemon zest, parsley, thyme, nutmeg and egg to bind. Any of it that will not fit in the flap is rolled into balls and fried, as the garnish here calls for.
- Egg sauceThe "egg sauce" served with veal in some districts is a white sauce with chopped hard-boiled egg through it, not a custard. The recipe records it as a regional habit served alongside the brown gravy rather than instead of it.
- Why the hamHam, tongue, bacon or pickled pork are there for salt and fat, which lean veal lacks. Keep the accompaniment even if you modernise everything else.
- YieldA large loin as described serves 10-12 with the accompaniments. A 3 lb boned loin serves 6.
Cassell's belongs to the last generation of English cookery books written for a kitchen where the best roast still meant a joint turning on a spit or jack in front of the fire rather than shut in an oven, and the instructions here are entirely about managing radiant heat: the clear fire, the moderate distance, the greased paper, the warning to hang the joint so both ends cook alike. Veal was expensive relative to beef and mutton, and the price quoted here is 11d. a pound. The insistence on serving ham, tongue, bacon or pickled pork alongside is not decoration but old practical sense, since milk-fed veal carries little fat and almost no assertive flavour of its own; the same pairing appears in veal-and-ham pie and the bacon-wrapped escalope. Egg sauce with roast veal, noted here as a habit of 'some places', has now more or less vanished from the table.