Farce de Veau
(Veal Forcemeat.) Ingredients.
Two Eggs. Half a pound of lean Veal.
Quarter of a pound of Beef Suet.
Two ounces of fat Bacon.
This entry gives the three ingredients and nothing else — the method was assumed knowledge in a professional kitchen. What follows fills in the parts a modern cook needs to reconstruct it.
- What a farce isA forcemeat: raw meat and fat pounded to a smooth paste, used to stuff fish and poultry or shaped into quenelles. Veal forcemeat of this kind served as a stuffing for a whole baked or braised fish and as the base for garnish quenelles.
- The ratio is the recipeHalf a pound of lean veal to a quarter pound of suet to two ounces of bacon is 8:4:2 by weight, fourteen ounces in all — the suet alone is a bit over a quarter of the weight, and with the fat bacon the mixture is closer to two-fifths fat. That proportion of fat is what keeps the farce from turning dry and crumbly, so keep it even if you scale the quantities.
- Beef suetThe hard fat from around the kidneys, sold by butchers fresh or as shredded packet suet. Fresh suet must be stripped of membrane and chopped or grated very fine before it will pound smooth; packet suet is already shredded and floured.
- Fat baconBacon here was often unsmoked — green or fat streaky, not far from what is now sold as pancetta or salt pork. Modern smoked supermarket bacon will dominate a delicate fish; an unsmoked cut is the safer choice.
- Missing seasoningNothing is listed, but a veal farce of this type was normally seasoned — salt, white pepper, and a little grated nutmeg or mace, often with lemon zest and chopped parsley for a fish stuffing. Season assertively; the paste tastes flat once cold.
- Missing binderA farce of this type is bound with one or two eggs, and frequently with a panada of breadcrumbs soaked in milk or a little cream. Without a binder the mixture will not hold as quenelles.
- Work it coldThe entry gives no method; a forcemeat like this would have been pounded in a mortar, and a food processor does it in seconds. Chill the meat and fat hard first and pulse in short bursts — if the suet warms and smears, the farce splits when cooked.
- CookingQuenelles are poached gently in salted water or fish stock at a bare shiver, around 170-180F, for 8-10 minutes. As a stuffing inside fish, the farce is raw veal and pork and should reach 160F at the centre; check it rather than judging by the fish.
- YieldAbout 14 oz of paste before binder — enough to stuff a medium whole fish, or roughly 20 small quenelles.
Farce is simply the French for stuffing, from the Latin farcire, to cram, and the word had settled into English professional kitchens untranslated alongside panada and quenelle. Veal was the default forcemeat meat in that tradition because it is pale, mild and rich in gelatine, so it binds firmly without colouring the finished dish or fighting the flavour of the fish it is packed into he same of a classical white stock. The suet and fat bacon are doing structural work rather than flavouring: lean veal alone sets hard and dry, and a generous proportion of fat was needed for a farce that would slice cleanly and stay moist. That the recipe consists of an ingredient list with no method is itself telling: it was written for a cook who needed the proportions, not the procedure.