Tendrons de Veau
INGREDIENTS for good-sized entrée. - The gristles from 2 breasts of veal, white stock, 1 faggot of savoury herbs, 1 blade of pounded mace, 4 cloves, 2 carrots, 2 onions, a strip of lemonpeel, egg and bread-crumbs, 2 tablespoonfuls of chopped mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste, 2 tablespoonfuls of sherry, the yolk of 1 egg, 3 tablespoonfuls of cream.
After removing the gristles from a breast of veal, stew them for 4 hours, as in the eggs whole, and the whites cut in small pieces, and the gherkins chopped. Have ready a few veal quenelles, add these, with the slices of head, to the other ingredients, and let the whole get thoroughly hot without boiling. Arrange the pieces of head as high in the centre of the dish as possible; pour over them the ragoût, and garnish with the crayfish and croûtons placed alternately. A little of the gravy should also be served in a tureen.
TIME. - About ½ an hour to reduce the stock.
SEASONABLE from March to October.
THANKSGIVING CAKE.
Tendrons are the cartilaginous tips of the veal ribs, taken from the breast; they are collagen and gristle rather than muscle, and everything depends on cooking them long enough to turn that cartilage soft and gelatinous.
- Sourcing the tendronsSupermarkets do not sell them separately. Ask a butcher for a whole breast of veal, or for the rib tips trimmed from one; the recipe calls for the gristles from two breasts, which it describes only as making a "good-sized entree".
- The hinge: stew them right throughFour hours at a bare simmer is not an exaggeration. Undercooked tendrons are rubbery and inedible; properly cooked they are yielding and slightly sticky, and they will set firm when cold, which is what makes them easy to crumb and fry.
- Press and cool before coatingThe printed text here breaks off before the finishing steps, but the ingredient list calls for egg and bread-crumbs; recipes of this type generally cool the stewed tendrons under a light weight so they flatten into neat pieces, then trim, egg-and-crumb and colour them. Trying to crumb them hot and loose will not work.
- White stockA pale unroasted veal or chicken stock, unsalted or lightly salted, since it is reduced hard later. Do not substitute a dark brown stock; the point of the dish is a pale finish.
- Faggot of savoury herbsA bundle of parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf tied with string, lifted out before serving. Beeton's standard aromatics for a white stew.
- Blade of pounded maceMace is the aril, the lacy covering around the nutmeg seed. A "blade" is one piece; roughly a quarter teaspoon of ground mace stands in.
- Yolk and cream liaisonThe yolk of one egg beaten with three tablespoons of cream is stirred into the reduced sauce off the direct heat. Bring it back only to the point where it thickens and coats a spoon; if it boils the yolk curdles and the sauce breaks.
- Reducing the sauceAbout an hour to reduce the strained stock, as the original notes. Reduce before the sherry and cream go in, and taste for salt only at that stage, as reduction concentrates it sharply.
An entrée in Mrs Beeton's sense is not a main course but one of the made dishes served between the fish and the roast, and tendrons de veau is a classic of that slot: a French kitchen economy, using the rib cartilage that a butcher would otherwise throw in with the trimmings, turned by long gentle stewing into something rich and gelatinous. The seasonal note, March to October, reflects the old calf-rearing year, when veal was a spring and summer meat. Dishes of this kind depended on a household keeping a stockpot going and having a cook willing to spend four hours on a by-product.