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Veal Cutlets (Plain)
Wipe and trim the outer skin from the cutlets, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Have the frying-pan hot, rub it with a piece of fat pork or beef suet. Put in the cutlets, and as soon as seared on one side turn and sear the other. Fry quickly, taking care that they do not burn or cook overmuch. There is less juice in a veal cutlet than in either beefsteak or lamb chops, and they require careful cooking to be palatable.
As soon as done remove to the hot platter and make a cream sauce by pouring into the pan half a cup of milk, and as soon as it reaches boiling-point add a teaspoonful of flour and a tablespoonful of butter, rubbed smoothly together. Stir until smooth and bubbling, season with salt and pepper, and pour around the cutlets.
A plain pan-fried cutlet with a pan sauce thickened at the last moment. The whole thing hinges on speed: veal is lean, and a cutlet held over heat past the point of doneness turns dry and grey.
- What a cutlet meant hereLate-nineteenth-century "veal cutlet" generally means a slice from the leg or loin, often around half an inch thick, rather than the pounded-thin scaloppine sold today. If your cutlets are thin, they will be done in a minute or two per side; a half-inch slice wants roughly three minutes a side.
- DonenessCurrent USDA guidance for whole cuts of veal is 145F, followed by a three-minute rest. That leaves a shade of pink at the centre, which is plausibly what the writer has in mind in warning against cooking "overmuch."
- Greasing the panRubbing the hot pan with a scrap of fat pork or suet leaves only a film of fat, which is the point: veal has little of its own but too much added fat stews rather than sears. A teaspoon of clarified butter or a neutral oil does the same job.
- Half a cup of milkHalf a cup is 4 fluid ounces, enough sauce for two or three cutlets. Whole milk gives the best body; the sauce is thin by design and meant to pool around the meat rather than coat it.
- The flour and butterA teaspoon of flour rubbed smooth with a tablespoon of butter is a beurre manie. Work it to a paste with the back of a spoon before it goes near the pan, and whisk it into the simmering milk in small pieces so it disperses without lumping.
- DeglazingPour the milk in while the pan is still hot and scrape up the browned bits from the cutlets; that fond is the only seasoning the sauce gets beyond salt and pepper. Milk can catch and scorch, so pull the pan off high heat first.
- YieldAs written this serves two, or three at a stretch. Double the milk, flour and butter if you are cooking four or more cutlets, and cook the meat in batches so the pan stays hot.