Home › The Principles of Cookery › Veal, Neapolitan Turnovers Of
Veal, Neapolitan Turnovers Of
Cut half a pound of cooked lean veal and two ounces of cooked ham (fat and lean together) into thin slices, and mince these finely. Dissolve in a saucepan a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and fry in it a finely-minced shallot and a dessert-spoonful of chopped parsley. Drain these, and put them in a mortar with the minced meat, a table-spoonful of grated Parmesan, a pinch of cayenne, a pinch of grated nutmeg, and a salt-spoonful of white pepper. Pound these ingredients thoroughly, and whilst pounding add gradually a table-spoonful of strong stock which is a jelly when cold, a dessert-spoonful of sherry, a salt-spoonful of strong stock which is a jelly when cold, a dessert-spoonful of sherry, a salt-spoonful of essence of anchovy, and a well-beaten egg. Have ready some good pastry made for the purpose, and rolled to the thickness of a shilling. Cut this into pieces three inches square, and lay a spoonful of the forcemeat on one corner of each. Turn the corners over, moisten the edges with beaten egg, and press them together to make them stick. Put a quart of water into a saucepan, throw a tea-spoonful of salt into it, and let it boil. Drop the turnovers into it, and let them simmer for five minutes. Drain them, and put them into a dish. Have ready prepared some good stock made by simmering the bones and trimmings of the veal, with a carrot, an onion, a bunch of sweet herbs, and as much water as will cover them. Strain this stock, skim the fat from it, and put half a pint of it into a sauce-pan with a wine-glassful of light wine, two table-spoonfuls of grated Parmesan, a slice of butter, a tea-spoonful of ketchup, a spoonful of mustard, and another of essence of anchovy. Stir the gravy over the fire for five minutes, pour it over the turnovers, sprinkle a little grated cheese on the surface, and bake the turnovers in a quick oven. Serve them on the dish in which they were baked. The pastry should be made fully three hours before it is used, and kept in a cool place till wanted. It may be made by mixing half a salt-spoonful of salt with six ounces of baked flour, then rubbing into this one ounce of butter, and working into the mixture the yolks of three eggs beaten up with a wine-glassful of cold water.
Despite the name, this is a ravioli in all but title: an egg-yolk paste, a pounded meat filling, a brief poach, then a bake under sauce. The text as printed contains a compositor's slip that repeats a phrase; read it once, not twice.
- The duplicated lineThe passage "strong stock which is a jelly when cold, a dessert-spoonful of sherry, a salt-spoonful of" is set twice. The intended list is one tablespoon of jellied stock, one dessertspoon of sherry, and a saltspoonful of anchovy essence.
- Spoon and glass measuresA dessert-spoonful is 2 teaspoons; a salt-spoonful is about a quarter teaspoon; a wine-glassful is roughly 2 fl oz (a quarter cup). "A piece of butter the size of a walnut" is somewhere between half an ounce and an ounce.
- Quick oven425-450F. The turnovers are already cooked through by the poaching, so the bake is only to glaze the cheese and reduce the sauce slightly - ten to fifteen minutes is ample.
- Baked flourFlour dried in a slow oven and cooled before use, a Victorian habit meant to drive off damp so the paste took less water. Plain flour straight from the bag works; if the dough feels slack, hold back a little of the water rather than adding flour later.
- The pastry is pastaSix ounces of flour, an ounce of butter, three egg yolks and a little water is a rich noodle dough, not a shortcrust. The three-hour rest matters: it lets the gluten relax so the sheet can be rolled to the thickness of a shilling, about 1.5 mm, without springing back.
- Jellied stockThe tablespoon of stock "which is a jelly when cold" is likely there as much for gelatine as for flavour, helping the pounded filling hold together. A well-reduced veal or chicken stock chilled until firm gives the same effect.
- Essence of anchovy and ketchupEssence of anchovy was a thin, sharp bottled sauce; anchovy paste thinned with a little water is the nearest match. The "ketchup" here is almost certainly mushroom or walnut ketchup, a dark savoury condiment, not the tomato kind - Worcestershire sauce is a closer stand-in than anything on the modern ketchup shelf.
- The poachFive minutes at a bare simmer in salted water. Keep the water below a rolling boil or the seams open and the filling escapes; seal the edges firmly with beaten egg and press out any trapped air.
- YieldHalf a pound of veal and two ounces of ham, on three-inch squares, gives roughly sixteen to twenty turnovers - a first course for four, or a light main for two or three.
The dish is filled pasta in the ravioli or agnolotti family in all but name: an egg-yolk sheet, a pounded filling, a poach, then a bake under a Parmesan sauce. The "Neapolitan" tag was applied loosely in nineteenth-century English cookery to dishes with Parmesan and Italian antecedents, and should not be taken as evidence of a specific Naples original. What the recipe does show is the reach of the mortar: cooked veal and ham are pounded to a paste with cheese, spice, wine and jellied stock, in the manner of the French forcemeat tradition, and applied here to a pasta the book will not quite call pasta. The instruction to use already-cooked veal, with the bones and trimmings simmered down for the sauce, marks this as a made dish for using up a joint rather than a recipe begun from scratch.