Veal Loaf
3 1/2 pounds lean veal; 1/2 pound salt pork; 6 soda crackers rolled fine or 1 cup fine-bread crumbs; 2 eggs; 1 small onion, chopped fine; 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley; a little grated nutmeg; 1/2 teaspoonful kitchen bouquet; salt and pepper.
Chop or grind the veal and pork, or have it done by the butcher. Mix the onion and seasoning well with the meat; add the crumbs and beaten egg. If too dry, add sufficient water to moisten. It should be sufficiently moist to retain its juiciness after baking. A good way is to moisten the crumbs before mixing, as some will absorb more than others, and the loaf is not good, if dry all through when done.
Make into an oval-shaped loaf and bake in a pan not much larger than the loaf, but with sufficient room to hold liquor for basting. Pour a little hot water in the pan; sprinkle bread crumbs and butter over the top, or lay thin slices of salt pork or bacon over, and bake two hours in moderately hot oven, basting frequently with liquor in the pan.
A large ground-veal loaf of the kind that sat between meatloaf and potted meat on the sideboard, meant to be baked, cooled and sliced. The one thing to get right is moisture: veal is lean, and the recipe is emphatic that dry crumbs will ruin it.
- Soak the crumbs firstThe recipe's own advice is the hinge. Wet the cracker or bread crumbs with water, milk or stock until they are spongy but not swimming, then work them in. Dry crumbs pull liquid out of the veal as it bakes and the loaf sets up chalky in the centre.
- Oven temperature"Moderately hot" in books of this period is usually reckoned at somewhere around 375-400F. At that heat a four-pound loaf may well not need the full two hours; start checking at 75 minutes.
- Cook to temperature, not timeGround veal and pork should reach 160F on an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part. Two hours will overshoot that badly and undo all the work of keeping the loaf moist.
- Kitchen BouquetA caramel-and-vegetable browning sauce, still sold in most supermarkets. It is there for colour and a savoury background note; a half teaspoon of any browning sauce, or a teaspoon of soy sauce, does the same job.
- Salt porkUnsmoked cured pork fat, sold in slabs near the bacon. Half a pound ground into the veal supplies the fat the veal lacks. Streaky bacon substitutes acceptably, but it brings smoke that the original did not have; if you use it, cut the added salt back.
- Soda crackersClose to modern plain saltines, though the period cracker was a larger biscuit. Six crushed fine make well under the alternative cup of soft bread crumbs, so the crumb measure is the more generous binding; judge by feel rather than by the stated equivalence.
- The pan and the bastingA loaf tin will steam the sides. Use a shallow roasting pan or small gratin dish that leaves an inch or so around the loaf, add a little hot water, and baste every 20 minutes. Top up the water if it threatens to dry out and scorch.
- Yield and servingFour pounds of meat makes 10 to 12 servings. Loaves of this kind were commonly served cold as well as hot: chill the loaf under a weight overnight and it slices cleanly for sandwiches, with the pan juices set to a light jelly.