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Veal Roll, Baked
Mince finely from two to three pounds of uncooked lean veal and one pound of streaky bacon. Add to the mince a salt-spoonful of white pepper, the grated rind of a small lemon, half a tea-spoonful of minced thyme, a minced shallot, an ounce of finely-grated bread-crumbs, and a little salt--the quantity to be regulated by the quality of the bacon. Form the mince into a roll, cover with oiled paper, and wrap it in coarse paste made of flour and water. Bake in a moderate oven. When done take the meat out, and serve it with good brown sauce poured round it (see VEAL FORCEMEAT, ROLL OF). Time to bake the roll, about two hours.
A forcemeat loaf baked inside a flour-and-water crust that is thrown away — the paste is a sealed vessel, not part of the dish. Everything hinges on treating it as such.
- The paste is armour, not pastryCoarse paste is flour and water mixed stiff and sealed around the roll to trap steam and keep the outside from drying; the recipe gives no thickness. It bakes hard and is discarded. A double thickness of oiled parchment inside a tight foil parcel does the same job if you would rather not waste the flour.
- Oven temperature"Moderate oven" is conventionally read today as about 350F; the book itself gives no figures. At that heat a roll of this size is likely to be done before the stated two hours.
- Time and donenessTwo hours is longer than this needs. Go by internal temperature: 160F at the centre of the loaf, which for a roll about 3 inches thick usually falls between 60 and 80 minutes. Beyond that the veal turns dry and crumbly whatever the crust is doing.
- Salt-spoonfulA salt-spoon holds roughly a quarter teaspoon. The vagueness about salt is deliberate and still sound — cure strengths in streaky bacon vary enormously, so mix, fry a teaspoon of the mince, taste it, then adjust.
- MincingAsk the butcher to grind lean veal shoulder once on a coarse plate, or pulse cubed cold veal and bacon in a food processor in short bursts. Warm meat smears rather than cuts and the roll will be pasty.
- Shallot and thymeOne shallot, minced fine, goes in raw and may taste sharp in a loaf this size; sweating it in a little butter first is an option.
- CrumbsAn ounce of fine dry breadcrumbs is about 1/4 cup — a binder only, not a filler. Fresh crumbs weigh far less per cup, so weigh them.
- Yield and servingThree to four pounds of mince gives 6 to 8 servings. It slices best warm rather than hot; the direction for "good brown sauce" points to a proper espagnole or a reduced veal gravy, and the recipe has it poured round the roll rather than over it, so the surface stays visible.
Baking meat inside a stiff flour-and-water shell is an old way of cooking without a spit: the crust, known in English kitchens as huff paste, holds in juices and takes the brunt of the oven's heat, and is broken off and thrown away. Veal and bacon together are a common Victorian answer to veal's shortage of fat, and a similar mince appears elsewhere in the book under forcemeat, rolled and baked, poached in a cloth, or used to stuff other things - hence the cross-reference to VEAL FORCEMEAT, ROLL OF.