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Veal, Shoulder of, Stuffed and Roasted
Cut the knuckle from a shoulder of veal, draw out the blade-bone, and fill the cavity thus made with good veal forcemeat. If preferred, the blade-bone may be left in, and the forcemeat spread over the part where the knuckle was cut off, and also under the flap. The broad end of the shoulder must then be turned and skewered over the forcemeat. Tie a piece of oiled or greased paper over the joint, hang it tolerably near a clear fire, and at the end of twenty minutes draw it back and roast it gently until done enough. Baste every quarter of an hour. Twenty minutes before it is taken up remove the paper, dredge the joint with flour, and baste till it is nicely browned. Place it on a dish, pour good brown sauce round it, and serve with a cut lemon on a plate. Send ham or bacon to table with it. Time to roast a shoulder of veal, three hours to three hours and a half. Probable cost, 8 1/2d. per pound if bought whole.
This is spit-roasting instructions dressed as a recipe: the joint hangs before an open fire, is shielded with paper, and cooks three hours or more. An oven does the same work with less attention, but the sequence — protect, roast gently, uncover and brown — still governs the result.
- The hinge: gentle heat after an initial blastThe twenty minutes close to a clear fire sets the surface; everything after is slow cooking. In an oven, start at 425F for 20 minutes, then drop to 325F for the remainder. Veal shoulder is lean and turns dry and stringy if roasted hard throughout.
- Timing and donenessThree to three and a half hours suits a large bone-in shoulder before an open fire; the recipe itself gives no weight. In a modern oven reckon roughly 25 minutes per pound at 325F after the initial searing, and go by a thermometer: 145-150F at the thickest point of the meat, then rest 20 minutes. A stuffed joint takes longer than the same weight unstuffed.
- The oiled paperThis is a buttered or oiled paper tied over the meat to keep the surface from scorching in radiant heat — the ancestor of a foil tent. Loose foil does the same job; remove it for the last 20 minutes as directed so the flour dredge can brown.
- Boning the shoulderDrawing out the blade-bone is a butcher's job worth asking for. Request a shoulder boned and pocketed, knuckle removed, and keep the bones for stock. The alternative given here — leaving the bone in and spreading forcemeat under the flap — is easier and nearly as good.
- Veal forcemeatA veal forcemeat of this period is typically breadcrumbs, shredded suet or butter, lemon zest, parsley, thyme, mace and egg to bind, sometimes with chopped ham or bacon; the recipe here says only "good veal forcemeat". Pack it loosely; a tightly stuffed cavity cooks unevenly.
- Dredging with flourFlour thrown onto the hot, basted surface forms a crisp browned crust. Do it only in the last stretch of cooking, and baste immediately after, or the flour scorches and tastes raw and bitter.
- BastingEvery quarter of an hour is right for a lean joint turning before a fire. In a closed oven every 30-40 minutes is enough; add a little stock or butter to the tin if the drippings threaten to burn.
- Serving and cost8 1/2d. per pound is consistent with mid-to-late Victorian retail prices, veal then being roughly on a par with beef and mutton rather than notably dearer. The ham or bacon sent to table alongside is not a garnish but a seasoning: salt-cured pork supplies what lean veal lacks.
Shoulder of veal was a joint of the substantial middle-class table rather than the grand one — cheaper than loin or fillet, awkwardly shaped, and much improved by boning and stuffing, which is exactly what this entry sets out to do. The forcemeat solves two problems at once: it fills the hollow left by the blade-bone so the joint carves in neat slices, and it adds the fat and seasoning that lean young veal conspicuously lacks. The pairing with ham or bacon recurs frequently in nineteenth-century British cookery books and reflects the same logic. Instructions to hang the joint before a clear fire and draw it back after twenty minutes belong to the roasting jack and the open range, still in common domestic use when Cassell's dictionary was compiled in the 1870s; closed ovens were spreading but were widely regarded as baking rather than roasting, and a joint cooked in one was said, disparagingly, to be baked.