Veal
When Dr. Lister, who was one of Queen Anne's physicians, went to Paris in the beginning of last century, he declared that the French might have beef and mutton equal to ours-but we have far the best veal in Europe. The judgment now must be reversed. There is no beef or mutton that will take the prize from that produced in England; but the English veal is not great, and has no pretension to be compared with that of France. This is the fault, not of the calf but of the butcher, who bleeds the animal a little at a time for days before it is slaughtered, and tortures it by hanging its head downwards to drain the blood more perfectly. The result is that the veal comes to table very white, like the wing of a chicken-but it is also too often tasteless and stringy. The truth is that the treatment of veal is not well understood in England, and it is only in England that people have turned it into a byword. Macaulay hated Croker with a mortal hatred.
His detestation expressed itself in the phrase " I hate him worse than cold boiled veal." There is another well-known saying, but it is not his-that to eat veal is as insipid as kissing one's sister.
Veal Broth. See Soup and Blonde de Veau.
Veal Gravy.--See Gravy.
Boiled Veal. - A nation that refuses to eat boiled beef (that is, fresh boiled beef), which after bread is the staple food of France and Germany, can yet bring itself to set down among its dainty dishes boiled veal. Well might Macaulay exclaim against it! Veal is not fit to eat unless Veal a roasting heat in some form or other is brought to bear upon it; and no receipt shall here be given for boiled veal. The same interdict applies to stewed veal, except in those cases when, as in brazing, the process of stewing can be combined with that of roasting. In the list of stews which follow, the veal is part baked, fried, or in some way roasted.
Brazed Veal. By rights this should be done in a brazing-pan, with live coals on the lid, so that the meat may be baked on the upper side while being stewed underneath. The same effect may be produced more simply by taking three or four pounds of veal-be it loin, fillet, or breast-freeing it from bone, tying it up, and frying it in a stewpan with an ounce of butter until it has a golden tint all over. After that, stew it for an hour and a half in a quart of broth, with a carrot, an onion, a faggot of sweet-herbs, pepper and salt. Then serve it, straining the gravy, skimming off the fat, and adding some lemon-juice. Garnish it with sorrel, endive, or spinach.
Veal in its own gravy (Veau à la Bourgeoise, ou dans son jus). This is another form of brazed veal, and must be done very slowly. Take the cushion of veal and pass it in butter till it colours well. Then put with it a tumblerful of water, two or three onions, two or three carrots, a faggot of sweet-herbs, pepper and salt. Put a tight lid on, and live embers on the lid. Let it simmer as slowly as possible for three hours on the corner of the stove. Skim away the fat, and serve it with lemons. "Cut two Spring Stew of Veal. - Miss Acton's receipt. pounds of veal free from fat into small collops half an inch thick; flour them well, and fry them in butter, with two small cucumbers sliced, peppered, and floured, one moderate-sized lettuce, and twenty-four green gooseberries divided lengthwise and seeded. When the whole is nicely browned, lift it into a thick saucepan, and pour gradually Veal into the frying-pan from which it has been taken half a pint or rather more of boiling water, broth, or gravy. Add pepper and salt. Give it a minute's simmering, and then pour it over the meat in the saucepan. Let the veal stew gently for from three-quarters of an hour to an hour. A bunch of green onions cut small may be added to the other vegetables."
Veal in a Mirepoix. - Take a cushion of veal, and lard it or not at pleasure. Put it in a glazing stewpan with half a pint of Mirepoix of white wine, which is to be well reduced. Moisten it again with a pint of the like Mirepoix and three gills of veal stock. Cook it for two hours, basting the meat frequently, and glaze it a quarter of an hour before it is done. Prepare a garnish of endive; put it on a dish with the veal upon it. Skim the fat off the gravy, pass it through a sieve into a sauceboat, and serve it with the meat. Veal à la Marengo. - See Chicken.
Fricandeau of Veal. - See Fricandeau.
Roast Veal. The most usual pieces for this purpose are the fillet, the loin, the neck, and the breast; and it is always best to stuff them (using Forcemeat No. 5), though sometimes the loin is made an exception to this rule. As veal takes long to roast-a fillet requiring from three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half hours, it is often, either in whole or in part, enveloped in buttered paper, lest the fat should all melt away and the outer surface be too much done. In this case the paper must be removed a little while before the roasting is complete, and the joint must be dredged with flour, basted with fresh butter, and frothed, before it is dished up. Serve round it for a sauce some English butter sauce which has been coloured with browning and acidulated with lemon-juice. Serve at the same time in a dish apart some boiled bacon or Bath chap, with greens. For a variety, instead of the melted butter or English Veal sauce, garnish the roast with the Financier's or the Toulouse Ragout. (See Relishes Nos. 1 and 2.) Roast Veal à la Crème. - When, as described in the fore-going receipt, the buttered paper is to be removed from the joint about twenty minutes before it is completely roasted, it is no more to be basted with butter, but either with a pint of rich cream, or of Béchamel, which is half cream. This will form upon the roast a delicate golden crust, which must be carefully handled in transferring the veal from the spit to its dish. For a sauce, take some Béchamel, mix with it the brown which has fallen from the roast in basting it with cream, and some stewed button mushrooms, together with their juice.
Veal Cutlets. In England the most common way of cooking them is called the French way. In France it is called the English way. It is also called à la Zingara. The cutlets are taken from the back ribs or loin; or sometimes they are simply small collops from the fillet. But there is not a word to be said against the small cutlets from the neck. Let them be nicely trimmed and freed from fat, egged, breadcrumbed and fried. It is the egging and breadcrumbing that is supposed to be peculiarly English. Let there be slices of bacon or else of tongue to correspond in number with the cutlets-the bacon to be grilled or fried, the tongue to be heated in stock. For a sauce, take the butter in which the cutlets have fried, dredge it with flour, and add to it a little broth and juice of mushrooms, together with lemon-juice and salt. In the French way of doing these cutlets à la Zingara-they are fried without being egged and breadcrumbed.
Veal Cutlets broiled. This is the true French way-the most simple of all. Take a cutlet from the neck; trim it well of bone, gristle, and skin, and flatten it with a cutlet bat. Sprinkle it with pepper and salt, brush it with oil or melted butter, and send it to the grill. If this cutlet Veal should have to be breadcrumbed, it is rolled in crumbs after being smeared with oil or melted butter; and in France no eggs are used for this purpose. With the cutlet-thus broiled-may be served a piece of maître d'hôtel butter, some tomato sauce, or a sharp sauce. Veal Cutlets of Dreux. - It is not very much to the credit of veal that it has to be in most cases combined carefully with savoury adjuncts-forcemeat, bacon, tongue. The cutlets of Dreux are larded with bacon, tongue, and truffles; fried for two or three minutes in butter; then stewed in a Mirepoix of white wine further diluted with an equal quantity of veal broth. Serve the cutlets on a purée of sorrel or of turnips, or on French beans; then skim the gravy, and strain it over all.
Veal Cutlets à la Milanaise are generally breadcrumbed -either in the French way without, or in the English way with, eggs. They are then fried or tossed in butter. In being served they are garnished with slices of truffle and of tongue (the latter punched into rounds), and most important of all-with macaroni which has been tossed for a moment with grated cheese ; and a little tomato sauce plays round the dish.
Veal Pie. Take the back ribs or neck, get rid of all bone-which should never enter into a pie-and trim the meat into small collops. At the same time cut some streaky bacon into thin slices. Fry the veal and the bacon with a faggot of Duxelles in about an ounce of butter. Then lay them in order in a pie-dish intermixed with forcemeat balls and hard-boiled yolks of egg-it may be also with a scalded sweetbread cut into pieces. Let all be seasoned with pepper and salt, and moistened with half a pint of gravy, to which the juice of half a lemon may be added. Cover it with paste; bake it for an hour or an hour and a quarter; and when the pie is done, lift the top ornament and pour in some good gravy.
Vegetables There is much more, of course, to be said of veal under other names-as Calf's Head, Calf's Foot, Liver, Heart, Sweetbread. 66