Veal Cutlet
Cut the veal as if for steak or frying, put lard or butter in the pan, and let it be hot. Beat up an egg on a plate and have flour on another; dip the pieces first in the egg, them in the flour, on both sides, and lay in the pan and fry until done, turning it carefully once. This makes an excellent dish if well prepared. This way is superior to batter.--Mrs. D.
Veal Cutlet.
Cut it in pieces the size of your hand, and lay in salt water some little time. Take out and wipe dry. Put a small piece of lard in the pan and sprinkle the cutlet with a very little flour, pepper, and salt. Fry until nearly done. When it begins to brown, pour off the lard, and pour in a little water, one large spoonful butter, and a little celery-seed. Turn it over frequently.--Mrs. W.
Veal Cutlets.
Trim smoothly and beat till tender, sprinkle over pepper and salt; then with spoon spread over an egg beaten till thick, and cover thickly with pounded cracker.
Have some hot lard ready in the frying-pan, put the cutlets on to fry, with the prepared side down; when of a light yellow brown, dress the other side the same way and fry, keeping closely covered. When they are perfectly done (veal should never be rare), place in a hot dish; pour one teacup oF milk, one small piece of butter, pepper, salt, and minced onion and parsley into the pan, stirring constantly. When it boils up, pour into the dish and garnish with parsley. Always sift browned cracker over such dished.--Mrs. S. T.
Three cooks' versions of the same dish, all shallow-fried in lard: a plain egg-and-flour coating, a lightly floured cutlet finished with a pan sauce, and a cracker-crumbed cutlet with a milk gravy. Any of the three works with modern veal cutlets or scaloppine.
- The cut"Cut as if for steak" points to slices from the leg or loin, roughly 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Mrs. S. T.'s instruction to trim and beat till tender is worth following in all three: pounded to about 1/4 inch, a cutlet needs only a couple of minutes a side.
- Pounded crackerNineteenth-century soda or water crackers, crushed fine with a rolling pin. Unsalted saltines or plain cracker crumbs are the nearest thing; panko is coarser and browns differently. "Browned cracker" for sifting over the finished dish is simply crumbs toasted dry in a pan.
- A teacupA teacup in cookbooks of this period is usually reckoned at about 3/4 cup, though the measure was not standardised. For the milk gravy in the third version that is roughly 6 fl oz.
- Lard quantitiesNone of the three specifies an amount. This is shallow frying, not deep: enough fat to film the pan by about 1/8 inch. Lard gives the best crust, but clarified butter or a neutral oil with a knob of butter works.
- The salt-water soakMrs. W.'s brief soak in salt water is an early brine; twenty to thirty minutes is ample, and the meat must be wiped genuinely dry or the flour will slump off and the fat will spit.
- "Veal should never be rare"This reflects period practice rather than current guidance. USDA now gives 145F with a three-minute rest for whole cuts of veal. A pounded cutlet reaches that in minutes, and cooking well past it is what makes veal dry and stringy.
- Keeping it coveredMrs. S. T. frying "closely covered" traps steam and softens the crumb crust. If you want a crisp coating, leave the pan open and rely on the thin cutlet to cook through quickly.
- The pan saucesBoth the celery-seed version and the milk version are deglazes. Mrs. W. directs pouring off the lard; do the same before adding the milk in Mrs. S. T.'s version, or the sauce breaks. The milk one will thicken only from the residual flour and crumbs in the pan; add a scant teaspoon of flour to the butter if you want it to coat.
- YieldFigure one cutlet of 5 to 6 oz per person; the recipes give no yield, and a teacup of milk makes only a small quantity of gravy.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree, gathered contributions from some 250 ladies of Virginia and her sister states, which is why the same dish appears three times over under three sets of initials — the book preserves disagreement rather than editing it away. Breaded and fried veal cutlets were a fixture of nineteenth-century American cookery; Mrs. D.'s pointed remark that egg-and-flour is "superior to batter" is a small skirmish in a long argument about coatings.