Veal Loaf
3 lbs. lean veal 1/3 lb. fat salt pork 1 egg, 4 rolled crackers 4 tablespoons cream 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper Few drops onion juice Wipe veal, remove skin and membranes, and chop fine with the salt pork. Mix all ingredients together, pack into a bread pan, brush with white of egg and bake slowly for two and one-half hours, basting with melted butter. Remove from pan and cut in thin slices for serving.
A cold-sliced luncheon loaf of the type that filled sandwich plates before delicatessen counters existed. The two things worth getting right are the grind and the finish temperature.
- Chop fine means grindTrimmed veal and salt pork put twice through the coarse plate of a grinder gives the close, sliceable texture the recipe wants. A food processor works if you pulse in small batches and stop before it turns to paste.
- Bake slowlyThe recipe gives no temperature; a slow oven is conventionally reckoned at somewhere around 300 to 325F. Two and a half hours at that heat is in the right range for a loaf of this size, but go by an instant-read thermometer: 160F at the centre. Ground veal, like all ground meat, needs that temperature.
- Rolled crackersSoda or common crackers crushed fine. Four crackers is ambiguous, since a period common cracker was noticeably larger than a modern saltine; aim for roughly 3/4 to 1 cup of crumbs, enough to bind without making the loaf bready.
- Salt pork1/3 lb of fat salt pork supplies both the fat and part of the seasoning. If yours is heavily salted, rinse it and consider cutting the tablespoon of salt back. Unsmoked pork belly or fatback plus salt is the nearest substitute.
- Onion juiceGrate half a small onion and press the pulp in a sieve, or squeeze it in cheesecloth. A few drops is a whisper of onion, not a flavour note anyone should be able to name.
- Basting and the egg-white glazeThe brushed white of egg sets into a thin skin that holds the surface together for slicing; the butter basting keeps lean veal from drying. Baste every 30 to 40 minutes, and tent with foil if the top colours before the centre is done.
- Cool before slicingThin slices come away more cleanly once the loaf has firmed. Let it rest at least 30 minutes for hot slices, or chill it and slice cold; loaves of this kind were often served cold, though the recipe does not say so.
- YieldAbout 3 1/3 lb of meat plus binder fills a 9x5 loaf pan; roughly 10 to 12 servings hot, or a good deal more as sandwich filling.
Veal loaf belongs to a family of pressed cold meats that American cookbooks turned out in quantity between the 1880s and the 1920s, when a sliceable loaf was the practical answer to Sunday supper, picnic baskets and the sandwich trade at home. Veal was cheap, mild and said to be gelatinous enough to hold a slice without added aspic, and cracker crumbs, cream and lemon juice were the standard binder-and-brightener combination; similar formulas appear in the household cookbooks and in the promotional cookbooks issued by flour and baking-powder companies. The dish is often described as an ancestor of the twentieth-century meat loaf, though it was meant to be eaten cold.