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VEAL, SHOULDER OF, BRAISED (to eat cold)
Take a whole shoulder of veal weighing about nine pounds. Cut off the knuckle, and bone the joint entirely without piercing the skin. Place the joint on the table, skin downwards, trim neatly, cut away some of the meat to make it even, sprinkle salt and pepper upon it, and spread over it a layer two inches and a half thick of good forcemeat made with equal parts of lean veal and fat bacon minced, pounded, and pressed through a sieve, and seasoned with pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg; two or three finely-minced truffles may, if liked, be added to the forcemeat. Fold the shoulder over to enclose the forcemeat, bind it with tape, and roll it in a napkin. Tie the ends securely, and fasten string round the roll to keep it in shape. Place the veal upon a bed of sliced vegetables in a braising-pan; put with it the bones and trimmings of the veal, including the knuckle, also two blanched calf's feet, the blanched rind of the bacon which was used for the forcemeat, and a little pepper and salt. Pour over all as much boiling stock as will barely cover the veal, put it on the fire, let it boil up, skim carefully, and simmer gently for four hours. Take it from the fire, but let the meat remain in the liquor till cool. Take it up, remove the napkin, tie it in a fresh one, and place upon it a dish with a weight. Let it remain until the next day. Remove the napkin, brush the veal over two or three times with liquid glaze, and serve it, garnished with parsley, aspic jelly, etc. This jelly may be made of the liquor in which the shoulder was simmered, strained, freed from fat, and clarified. The calf's feet which were stewed with the veal may be served with sauce on a separate dish (see CALF'S FOOT, A LA POULETTE). This is a good dish for a picnic or for a cold collation. Time to simmer the veal, four hours.
A large boned-and-stuffed joint, braised gently and pressed overnight so it slices cleanly cold. Most of the work is butchery and planning; the cooking itself is unattended.
- Order the joint aheadA nine-pound shoulder boned in one piece with the skin unpierced is a butcher's job — ask for it boned for rolling, skin left intact, and keep the bones and the knuckle, which go into the pot. A 5-6 lb boned shoulder scales the recipe down without changing the method.
- Forcemeat proportionsEqual weights of lean veal and fat bacon, ground twice, then sieved. "Fat bacon" here would have been cured fat pork; unsmoked streaky bacon, or fatback if you want it milder, will serve. A food processor does the pounding, but keep everything cold or the fat will smear and the farce will break when it heats.
- The napkin and the tapeThe cloth is structural, not decorative: it holds a boned joint in a cylinder so it slices into rounds. Butcher's twine plus a double layer of scalded muslin or a clean linen tea towel works. Tie firmly but not tight enough to squeeze the forcemeat out at the ends.
- Calf's feet are the setting agentThey are there for gelatin, to give the cooking liquor enough body to set as aspic. Two split pig's trotters do the same work and are far easier to buy. Leave them out and the strained liquor, though the bones and rind help, may well need leaf gelatin to set.
- "Simmer gently" means barely movingOn a modern burner, hold the liquid at 180-190F — an occasional bubble, no rolling boil. A hard simmer over four hours shreds the outer meat and muddies the liquor, though the recipe's own clarifying will recover it for aspic.
- Cool it in the fridge, not on the sideThe original leaves the joint in its liquor until cool, then stands it under a weight until the next day without saying where. Cool the pot down quickly — a sink of iced water helps — and do the pressing in the refrigerator with a board and a couple of tins on top.
- Liquid glazeMeat glaze: some of the strained, defatted cooking liquor boiled hard until it is syrupy and coats a spoon. Brushed on in two or three thin coats as it cools, it gives the dark lacquer that makes a cold joint look finished.
- YieldA nine-pound shoulder plus forcemeat is a buffet piece — thin slices for twenty or more, and the recipe itself recommends it for a picnic or a cold collation.
Cold pressed and stuffed joints of this kind belong to the buffet cookery of the late nineteenth-century English household, where a "cold collation" meant a table of dishes cooked the day before and set out to be carved at leisure — for shooting lunches, ball suppers, race meetings and picnics. Veal suited the job: it is pale, mild, and rich in the connective tissue that makes cold meat set firm rather than dry, and the calf's feet in the pot push that further by turning the braising liquor into aspic. The braising-and-pressing technique owes much to French professional practice, though this entry is written throughout in plain English — braising-pan, forcemeat, liquid glaze — rather than French terms. Veal on this scale was a mark of an establishment with a large household and a cool larder; the cut has since become expensive and uncommon in Britain, and the elaborate cold centrepiece it was built for has largely gone with it.