Braised Veal
Use rule for Braised Beef, substituting six pounds of the shoulder of veal.
A one-line variation that leans entirely on the braised beef recipe preceding it. The substitution is not quite one-for-one, because veal behaves differently from beef in a long braise.
- The hinge: keep the heat lowVeal shoulder has abundant connective tissue but very little fat, so it dries out where beef would still be basting itself. Hold the pot at a bare simmer, lid on, with enough liquid to keep the meat moist; the book itself specifies no temperature.
- Six pounds is a lot of meatA 6 lb shoulder is a large joint, enough for ten or more. If you want a smaller roast, buy a 3 lb piece and expect to shorten the cooking, but not by half.
- TimingReckon on 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours for a 6 lb shoulder, judged by feel rather than the clock. It is done when a skewer meets no resistance at the thickest point; veal that is merely at a safe temperature will still be tough.
- Buying veal shoulder todaySupermarket veal is usually cut into cutlets, chops or stew cubes. A whole shoulder generally needs a butcher's counter or a special order, and boned-and-tied shoulder is the easiest form to handle in a pot.
- Brown it properly firstPale veal gives up almost no colour of its own, so the sear is where the finished sauce gets its flavour. Dry the surface thoroughly, use a wide heavy pan, and do not crowd it.
- Fat where beef had its ownPeriod cooks larded lean veal with strips of salt pork. A modern equivalent is to lay bacon or a sheet of caul fat over the top, or simply to braise it fat-side up in a well-buttered pot.
- The sauce will setVeal shoulder throws a great deal of gelatin, so the strained cooking liquid thickens on its own as it cools and needs less flour than a beef gravy. Skim, reduce, and taste before adding any thickening at all.
Lowney's Cook Book was issued in 1907 by Maria Willett Howard for the Walter M. Lowney Company of Boston, a chocolate manufacturer that, like Baker's and Rumford, found it profitable to put out a general household cookbook with its own products woven through the sweet chapters. The meat chapter is conventional American domestic-science cooking of the period, and this entry shows the house style at its most economical: rather than reprint a method, the book refers you back to braised beef and changes only the cut. Braising itself takes its name from the French braise, live coals, from the old practice of burying a tightly closed pot in embers with more heaped on the lid. Veal shoulder was a natural candidate for the technique in a period when veal is generally said to have been cheap and commonly eaten in Northeastern cities, and when the lean, gelatinous forequarter cuts were considered too dry for roasting but ideal for a long moist cooking that yielded both a joint and a rich gravy.