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Mixed Pickles
Remove the meat from the tendrons, cut them right along the end of the rib-bones, divide the tendron or gristle part into square pieces about the size of a cutlet, put them into a stewpan with the stock and all the herbs and vegetables, let them cook very gently for about four hours. When quite tender lift them out carefully, place them between two dishes till nearly cold, trim them neatly, egg and bread-crumb them, fry them a light brown, dish them up on cold Tartare sauce, garnish with pickles and serve.
A classical French treatment of veal tendrons — the cartilaginous ends of the breast ribs — braised to gelatinous tenderness, pressed, crumbed and fried. The original assumes you have a stockpot going and a butcher who knows what a tendron is.
- What a tendron isThe tendron is the cartilage at the ends of the breast ribs, beyond the bone; the recipe's instruction to cut 'right along the end of the rib-bones' is exactly that. The recipe does not name the animal, but tendrons in this period normally mean veal: ask a butcher for veal breast, bone-in, and cut the gristle strip free yourself. Lamb breast behaves similarly.
- The hinge: press it while warmLifting the pieces out and setting them between two dishes until nearly cold is not tidiness. Braised cartilage is soft and shapeless hot; weighted pressing sets the gelatin so the tendrons hold a cutlet shape and can be trimmed, crumbed and fried without collapsing. Put a small weight on the top dish and leave them an hour or more.
- Stock and aromaticsNo quantities are given. Use enough light veal or chicken stock to cover — roughly 1.5 to 2 quarts for a breast's worth — with a carrot, onion, a stick of celery, a bay leaf, thyme and parsley stalks. The braising liquid is worth straining and reducing for another use; it will set to a firm jelly.
- Four hours is rightThis is one old timing not to shorten. Cartilage needs long, bare-simmer cooking to convert to gelatin; at 4 hours the pieces should yield completely to a skewer. Hold the pot at the barest tremble, or oven-braise, covered, at 300F.
- Frying"Fry them a light brown" means shallow fat, about 350F, two to three minutes a side. The tendrons are already cooked through; you are only colouring the crumb and warming them.
- Cold sauce, hot cutletsDishing hot fried pieces onto cold Tartare sauce sets up a contrast of temperatures that appears to be intentional. Make the sauce ahead: mayonnaise with chopped capers, gherkins, shallot, parsley and tarragon. Spread it on the platter rather than spooning it over, or the crumb goes soft.
- The garnish, and the titleThe garnish -- The recipe calls only for a garnish of pickles; the heading 'Mixed Pickles' may belong to a neighbouring entry rather than to this dish. If using the Victorian jarred mixture — cauliflower, onion, cucumber and gherkin in spiced vinegar — drain it well and set it at the ends of the dish.
- YieldFigure two trimmed pieces per person as an entrée course, three or four as a main.
Tendrons de veau were a staple of nineteenth-century French service and passed straight into the repertoire of the British "high class" cook, who was expected to make an elegant entrée out of a cheap offcut. The technique — long braise, press, crumb, fry, serve with a sharp cold sauce — is the same one applied to calf's feet, cow-heel and pig's ears, and it exists because gelatinous connective tissue, cooked slowly and then chilled, sets firm enough to be handled like a cutlet. The pairing with Tartare sauce and mixed pickles reflects the period taste for cutting rich, gelatinous fried food with acid; jarred mixed pickles were by then a commercial product sold widely in Britain, so a garnish that once meant a cook's own summer preserving work could be lifted straight from a jar.