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Veal, Loin of, Stewed, Superior
Take the chump end of a loin of veal weighing about seven pounds, and let the butcher bone it. Fill the cavity thus made with good veal force-meat, and bind the meat into a good form with tape. Put it into a stewpan with half a pound of bacon cut into slices, two carrots, two onions, each stuck with a clove, a bunch of sweet herbs, a few outer sticks of celery, half a tea-spoonful of peppercorns, a blade of mace, and half the thin rind of a lemon. Half a dozen mushrooms may be added if liked, and will be an improvement. Barely cover the ingredients with veal stock, and let all simmer gently till the veal is tender. Draw the saucepan on one side, and take out as much of the stock as will be needed for sauce. Thicken this with white thickening or with a little butter rolled in flour. Place the veal on a dish, garnish with the bacon, pour the sauce over, and serve. Time to simmer the meat, two hours. Probable cost, veal, 10d. per pound. Sufficient for six or seven persons.
A boned, stuffed loin braised in its own aromatic stock — essentially a French-style fricandeau under an English name. Most of the work is butchery and knots; the cooking wants a low, steady heat and nothing more.
- The hinge: keep it below a boil"Simmer gently" means bare tremors at the surface, around 180-190F. A rolling boil squeezes the loin tight and pushes the forcemeat out of the cavity, and it clouds the stock you need for the sauce.
- The cutThe chump end of a loin of veal is the rear portion, next to the leg. Ask a butcher for a boned and rolled veal loin roast, 5-7 lb; bones and trim are worth taking home for the stock. At current prices this is an expensive joint, and boned rolled pork loin behaves much the same way if veal is out of reach.
- Veal force-meatPeriod forcemeat for veal is minced veal (or the trim) with breadcrumbs soaked in milk, suet or butter, egg to bind, lemon zest, parsley, mace, salt and pepper. Fill the cavity loosely — packed stuffing swells and splits the roll.
- TapeThe recipe calls for tape, and cotton tape was one of the materials nineteenth-century kitchens used to bind joints. Butcher's twine at 1-inch intervals does the same job; tie it snug rather than tight so the joint keeps its shape without being throttled.
- White thickeningIn Cassell's this appears to mean a pale butter-and-flour thickening, cooked gently and without taking colour. The beurre manié alternative the recipe offers (butter kneaded raw into flour, whisked into the hot liquid in pieces) is quicker and needs a minute or two of simmering afterwards to lose the raw-flour taste.
- Liquid"Barely cover" is the instruction to follow literally: just enough veal or light chicken stock to come up over the meat and vegetables, no more. Too much liquid gives you a weak sauce; the bacon and vegetables release more as they cook.
- Timing and donenessTwo hours is about right for a 7 lb joint, but check with a thermometer at the centre of the meat rather than the stuffing: 145-150F, rising as it rests. Because the cavity holds raw minced veal and egg, the stuffing itself should reach 165F.
- Resting and servingLet the joint sit 15 minutes under foil before you cut the twine, or the slices fall apart. Six to seven servings, as stated; the bacon slices are the garnish, laid around the dish, and any remaining stock is worth reducing and saving.
Boning a loin, stuffing the hollow and braising it in a covered pan with bacon and root vegetables is the technique English cooks took from French braising practice in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cassell's, first issued in the 1870s and expanded through the end of the century, was written for households with a cook and a butcher's account, which is why the entry casually assumes both a seven-pound joint and someone willing to bone it. At tenpence a pound, veal sat broadly alongside good beef and mutton of the period; it was a joint for a dinner party. The clove-stuck onion, blade of mace and bundle of sweet herbs are the standard English aromatic set of the era, closer to a modern bouquet garni than the recipe's brevity suggests.