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Veal Tendons, Fried
Stew the tendons in the usual way, and place them between two dishes till cold. Cut them into slices half an inch thick. Brush them over with beaten egg, dip them into bread-crumbs, and fry them over a slow fire till of a pale brown. Serve very hot. Take half a pint of the sauce in which they were stewed, stir into it two table-spoonfuls of chopped mushrooms, two table-spoonfuls of sherry, and the yolk of an egg beaten up with three table-spoonfuls of cream. Stir this sauce over the fire till it begins to thicken, but it must not boil. Arrange the fried tendons in a circle on a hot dish, pour the sauce into the centre, and serve very hot. Sometimes the sauce is thickened with yolk of egg and allowed to get cold, then the sliced tendons are dipped into it, afterwards into bread-crumbs, and fried as before. Time, four hours to simmer the tendons.
A Victorian way with the gelatinous breast of veal: long-simmered, pressed flat, crumbed and fried, then finished with an egg-and-cream liaison. Two things carry the dish — the pressing and the sauce, which must never boil.
- What "tendons" means hereNot sinew but tendrons — the soft rib cartilage and gristly meat at the end of the veal breast, sold as riblets or breast of veal. Ask a butcher for veal breast on the bone, or the cartilage-end riblets; they turn silky and gelatinous after long moist cooking, which sinew proper never does.
- "Stew in the usual way""The usual way" points to an earlier stewing recipe elsewhere in the book, not reproduced here. The essential point is to keep the cooking liquid: the finishing sauce is made from half a pint of it, so it wants to be well flavoured.
- Pressing between two dishesThe recipe directs only that the hot tendons be placed between two dishes till cold; a weight on the upper dish is a common addition. As the collagen sets the pieces flatten, which is what allows them to be cut into half-inch slices without collapsing in the pan.
- Half a pintAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups of the braising liquid. Skim the fat off it cold before using.
- The sauce must not boilYolk and cream stirred into hot stock is a liaison, not a custard: it thickens between roughly 160 and 175F and curdles above that. Take the pan off direct heat, stir the yolk-cream mixture into a ladle of the warm sauce first, then return it and stir over the lowest heat until it coats a spoon.
- "A slow fire" for frying"A slow fire" means moderate rather than fierce heat in shallow fat. The tendons are already cooked through; the frying is only to set the crumb to a pale brown. Hot fat colours the coating before the gelatinous interior has warmed.
- Four hours' simmeringFour hours at a bare tremble is consistent with veal breast on the bone — the connective tissue needs the time. Do not let it gallop, or the meat shreds and will not press.
- The second methodThe variant coats the sliced tendons in the cold, set egg-thickened sauce instead of egg wash — effectively a em>villeroi coating. It needs the sauce reduced further so it sets firm when chilled, and the pieces should go back in the refrigerator after coating before they are crumbed.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities; a whole veal breast would serve roughly four to six. The ring of tendons with the sauce poured into the centre is an entrée in the Victorian sense rather than a main dish.
Tendrons de veau are a fixture of nineteenth-century French cookery that passed into the English repertoire, and this recipe follows the classical treatment closely: braise, press, slice, crumb, fry, and sauce. The appeal was economy dressed as refinement — the breast is one of the cheapest cuts on the calf, but its cartilage dissolves into gelatine that gives the finished slices a texture no prime cut can imitate. The finishing sauce is a simplified relation of sauce allemande, a braising liquor bound with yolk and cream, and the warning that it must not boil is a commonplace of period cookery books. The alternative coating described at the end — dipping the slices in a cold, stiffly set sauce before crumbing — is the technique generally known as à la Villeroi, a name traditionally associated with the French Villeroy family, though that attribution is not documented.