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Daube of Veal
Wipe 4-5 lb. veal roast, make incisions all about it with a very sharp knife. Into each of these place a small thin slice salt pork or fat bacon, bit of dried hot pepper, and a very tiny bit of garlic. Sprinkle the meat with mixed spices pounded fine, then with thyme and sage and bayleaf, and flour well. Brown it in iron pot in bacon fat with 1 chopped onion, several carrots and turnips, 2 celery stalks and 1 sweet pepper, all sliced or cut into strips. Brown the meat all over before adding the above vegetables. Add enough water to prevent scorching of vegetables; cook till tender, but not soft.
A larded braise in the Provençal manner, written for a cook who already knows how to hold a pot at a bare simmer. The whole success of it is in that simmer and in the depth of the incisions.
- The hinge: keep it below a boilOnce liquid goes in, hold the pot at the barest tremble, lid on. Veal shoulder or rump driven at a rolling boil turns dry and stringy long before it turns tender. On an electric burner this often means the lowest setting; the recipe assumes a pot on the fire, but a covered pot in a low oven (around 300F) will hold the same gentle heat.
- Larding the meatThe incisions want to go deep into the muscle, not just under the surface, and a narrow boning knife works better than a chef's knife. Push the pork, pepper and garlic well in with a finger or the handle of a spoon or they will fall out during browning.
- "Mixed spices pounded fine"Probably something close to the French quatre epices: black or white pepper, nutmeg, cloves and dried ginger or cinnamon, though the recipe does not specify. About a teaspoon total for a 5 lb roast is plenty, and pre-ground works if you have no mortar.
- Cut of vealBuy shoulder, rump or breast rather than loin. A collagen-rich cut is the point of a daube; a lean roast has nothing to melt and will be tough whatever you do.
- Liquid level"Enough water to prevent scorching" means just that: a shallow film in the bottom of the pot, topped up as it cooks away, rather than liquid up the sides of the meat. Substituting dry red or white wine for part of the water gives a better sauce, though the recipe itself calls only for water.
- TimingFigure 2 to 2 1/2 hours for a 4-5 lb roast, then test with a skewer. "Tender, but not soft" is the instruction to respect: the meat should yield but still slice, not shred.
- The vegetablesCut in strips, turnips and celery will collapse over two hours. Either accept them as part of the sauce, or hold back a second batch and add it in the last 30 minutes if you want them on the plate.
- Yield and servingServes eight generously. Rest the roast 15 minutes before carving, skim the fat from the pot liquor, and reduce it briefly if it is thin; the flour on the meat gives some body already.
The naming runs the other way round: the daubiere, the narrow-necked earthenware pot of Provence built to hold meat and a little liquid in a long, slow, nearly sealed braise, takes its name from the daube cooked in it. The word itself is often traced to the Spanish adobar, to season or marinate, though that derivation is proposed rather than settled. The classic version is beef, often shin or cheek in red wine, but veal, mutton and even goose were treated in the same manner, and the technique traveled well: larding a lean roast with salt pork, garlic and hot pepper before browning is a habit shared by French provincial cooking and the Creole kitchens of Louisiana, where a cold sliced daube glace is still a holiday dish.