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Tendrons de Veau, Stewed
INGREDIENTS for good-sized entrée. The gristles from 2 breasts of veal, white stock, 1 faggot of savoury herbs, 2 blades of pounded mace, 4 cloves, 2 carrots, 2 onions, a strip of lemon-peel.
The tendrons, or gristles, which are found round the front of a breast of veal, are frequently served as an entrée, and when well dressed, make a nice and favourite dish. Detach the gristles from the bone, and cut them neatly out, so as not to spoil the joint for roasting or stewing. Put them into a stewpan, with sufficient stock to cover them; add the herbs, mace, cloves, carrots, onions and lemon, and simmer these for nearly, or quite, 4 hours. They should be stewed until a fork will enter the meat easily. Take them up, drain them, strain the gravy and boil it down to a glaze, with which glaze the meat. Dish the tendrons in a circle, with croûtons fried of a nice colour placed between them; and put mushroom sauce, or a purée of green peas or tomatoes, in the middle.
TIME.-4 hours. 406 TÊTE DE VEAU EN TORTUE. preceding recipe, with stock, herbs, mace, cloves, carrots, onions and lemon-peel.
When perfectly tender, lift them out, and remove any bones or hard parts remaining.
Put them between two dishes, with a weight on the top, and when cold, cut them into slices. Brush these over with egg, sprinkle with bread-crumbs, and fry a pale brown. Take pint of the gravy they were boiled in, add 2 tablespoonfuls of chopped mushrooms, a seasoning of salt and pepper , the sherry, and the yolk of an egg beaten with 3 tablespoonfuls of cream. Stir the . sauce over the fire until it thickens; when it is on the point of boiling, dish the tendrons in a circle, and pour the sauce in the middle. Tendrons are dressed in a variety of ways-with sauce à l'Espagnole, vegetables of all kinds: when they are served with a purée, they should always be glazed.
TIME. hours.
SEASONABLE from March to October.
Tête de Veau en Tortue.
INGREDIENTS.-Half a calf's-head, or the remains of a cold boiled one; rather more than 1 pint of good white stock, 1 glass of sherry or Madeira, cayenne and salt to taste, about 12 mushroom-buttons (when obtainable), 6 hard-boiled eggs, 4 gherkins, 8 quenelles, or forcemeat balls, 12 crayfish, 12 croûtons. AVERAGE COST, without the meat, 2s. 9d.
Half a calf's head is sufficient to make a good large entrée, and if there are any remains of a cold one left from the preceding day it will answer very well for this dish. After boiling the head until tender, remove the bones, and cut the meat into neat pieces; put the stock into a stewpan, add the wine, and a seasoning of salt and cayenne; fry the mushrooms in butter for 2 or 3 minutes, and add these to the gravy.
Boil this quickly until somewhat reduced:
SEASONABLE. - With peas, from June to then put in the yolks of the hard-boiled August.
A long, gentle braise of the cartilage-rich strips from a breast of veal, finished with their own reduced cooking liquor. The technique is sound; the main obstacle is sourcing.
- What tendrons areThey are the flat rib cartilages along the front edge of a breast of veal, not the meat itself. Ask a butcher for veal breast riblets or tendrons de veau; most supermarkets will not stock them, and two breasts' worth is a special order.
- A faggot of savoury herbsA tied bundle: parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf is the standard reading. Tie it with string or wrap it in muslin so it lifts out cleanly before the gravy is reduced.
- Blades of maceMace blades are the dried aril of nutmeg, still sold whole in good spice shops. Note that the recipe asks for the mace pounded; equivalences to ready-ground mace vary, a blade being reckoned at anywhere from an eighth to a half teaspoon.
- White stockAn unroasted veal or chicken stock, unsalted or very lightly salted. Since it is reduced to a glaze at the end, any salt in it concentrates several-fold; season only at the finish.
- The four hours are realCartilage needs long, sub-simmering heat to turn to gelatine. Hold the pan at a bare tremble around 180-190F; a rolling boil will shred the tendrons before they soften. A fork sliding in without resistance is the test, not the clock.
- The glaze is the hingeStrain the cooking liquor, skim the fat, and boil it hard until it coats a spoon and is glossy and syrupy. Brush it over the drained tendrons in two or three coats. Under-reduced, it runs off and the dish looks watery; taken too far it turns bitter and tacky.
- CroûtonsFried bread, cut into triangles or hearts and browned in clarified butter, set upright between the pieces. Fry them at the last minute or they soften against the glaze.
- Yield and servingThe recipe calls this a good-sized entree; how far it stretches depends on how much gristle two breasts yield. For the centre the recipe offers a choice: mushroom sauce, or a puree of green peas or tomatoes.
The tendron is a cut that only makes sense in a kitchen with time and a whole carcass to work through. Nineteenth-century English cookery took the treatment from the French repertoire, where breast of veal was braised, pressed, glazed and dressed en couronne. The instruction to cut the gristles out "so as not to spoil the joint for roasting or stewing" is the giveaway: this is a dish built from a by-product, an economy raised to the level of an entr"e by four hours of simmering and a careful glaze. Veal breast is more common in France and Italy than in Britain, and the tendron is still sold as a braising cut by French butchers.