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VEAL QUENELLES (an entree)
Take a slice of lean veal from the leg, cut it into long thin strips, and scrape it with a knife till nothing but the fibre remains. Put the flesh in a mortar, pound for ten minutes, then pass it through a wire sieve on to a plate. Put back in a mortar six ounces of the veal thus prepared, also four ounces of panada, and three ounces of fresh butter. Pound these ingredients together till they are perfectly blended and form a smooth paste, and add gradually a little pepper, salt, and pounded mace or grated nutmeg. The more the forcemeat is pounded the better it will be. Moisten gradually with two whole eggs, and pound it again. Poach a small ball in boiling water to see if the forcemeat is light, fine, and delicately flavoured. If it is not sufficiently firm, add the yolk only of another egg. The white will only serve to render the quenelles hollow and puffy inside. A small quantity of white sauce will improve the forcemeat, which should be kept in a cool place till wanted. Half an hour before the quenelles are to be served mould the forcemeat with a dessert-spoon. (see QUENELLES), and throw them into fast-boiling water slightly salted. When they are done enough to take them up, put them on a dish, pour on them half a pint of nicely-flavoured white sauce, and serve very hot. Mushrooms or truffles may be added to the sauce if liked. Time to poach the quenelles, about fifteen minutes. Probable cost, veal, 1s. 1d. per pound. Sufficient for a small dish.
A classic French forcemeat dumpling written for a kitchen with a marble mortar and a strong arm. The method translates well to a food processor, but two things in the original need correcting: the water must not boil hard, and fifteen minutes is too long for most quenelles.
- Poach, do not boil"Fast-boiling water" will tear the quenelles apart and make them spongy. Bring the salted water to a boil, then drop it to a bare shiver — around 180F, with no more than a wisp of movement — before sliding them in.
- TimingThe recipe's fifteen minutes is long for the dessert-spoon shapes it describes; these are usually cooked through in about 8 to 10 minutes. They are done when they roll over, feel springy, and a cut one shows no wet centre. Longer only toughens them.
- PanadaThe book assumes you know this: a stiff paste of milk (or stock) thickened with flour or with fresh breadcrumbs, cooked until it leaves the sides of the pan, then cooled completely. The four ounces is a weight, so weigh the finished paste. It must be cold before it goes in the mortar.
- Scraping the vealThe scraping is there to leave the sinew behind, which a mortar cannot break down. A food processor achieves the same end faster: trim all silverskin from the leg meat, cut into cubes, and process to a fine paste, then push through a sieve if you want the old smoothness.
- Keep everything coldButter, eggs and meat should be refrigerator-cold, and the bowl too. A processor heats the mixture quickly; if the fat begins to look oily or separated, chill for twenty minutes before continuing. Warm forcemeat breaks in the poaching water.
- The test ball is not optionalPoach one small ball before shaping the rest. This is the only way to judge seasoning and, more importantly, firmness — the point at which an extra yolk is needed. The advice about the white is sound: it puffs the interior and then collapses.
- MeasuresHalf a pint of sauce in an imperial book is 10 fluid ounces, about 1 1/4 US cups. The book says only "nicely-flavoured white sauce"; a bechamel, or a veloute made with veal stock, would suit, thin enough to coat rather than cling.
- YieldSix ounces of veal with its panada makes roughly 16 to 18 dessert-spoon quenelles — a first course for four, or a garnish for a larger dish or a clear soup.
- MacePounded mace is still sold ground and is worth seeking out; it is the outer covering of the nutmeg and gives a drier, less sweet warmth. Use it sparingly, a large pinch for this quantity.
Quenelles were the mark of a properly trained cook in the nineteenth century: a test of whether the kitchen could make something light out of raw meat, fat and pounding alone. The name is generally traced to the German Knodel, dumpling, and the technique reached English tables through French professional cookery, where quenelles de brochet — pike — became the celebrated version associated with Lyon. The same paste served for garnished soups, timbales, vol-au-vent fillings and entrees like this one. The insistence that "the more the forcemeat is pounded the better it will be" belongs to an era of cheap kitchen labour; the note on veal at 1s. 1d. a pound, and the closing "sufficient for a small dish," shows the book addressing a household counting both shillings and servants.