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Veal, Stuffed and Stewed Shoulder of
INGREDIENTS for dish for 10 to 12 persons. A shoulder of veal, a few slices of ham or bacon, forcemeat, 3 carrots, 2 onions, salt and pepper to taste, a faggot of savoury herbs, 3 blades of pounded mace, water; a thickening of butter and flour.
AVERAGE COST, 8d. per lb.
Bone the joint by carefully detaching the meat from the blade-bone on one side, and then on the other, being particular not to pierce the skin; then cut the bone from the knuckle and take it out. Fill the cavity whence the bone was taken with a forcemeat. Roll and bind the veal up tightly; put it into a stewpan with the carrots, onions, seasoning, herbs and mace; pour in just sufficient water to cover it, and let it st We very gently for about 5 hours. Before taking it up, try if it is properly done by thrusting a lardingneedle in it; if it penetrates easily, it is sufficiently cooked. Strain and skim the gravy, thicken with butter and flour, give one boil, and pour it round the meat. A few young carrots may be boiled and placed round the dish as a garnish, and, when in season, green peas should always be served with this dish.
TIME.-5 hours.
SEASONABLE from March to October.
VEAL, STEWED.
Veal, Stewed, with Peas, Young
A boned, stuffed and braised shoulder scaled for a Victorian dinner table. The method is sound; the timing and the seasoning are where modern practice diverges.
- The hinge: bone it without breaking the skinThe whole dish depends on keeping the outer membrane intact so the joint can be rolled and tied around the forcemeat without leaking. Work the knife flat against the blade-bone from both sides, then free the knuckle. A butcher will bone and tie it on request.
- Five hours is too longFive hours is likely longer than needed -- A boned shoulder (the recipe gives no weight; something in the 5-6 lb range would suit 10 to 12), barely covered in liquid and held at a bare tremble, will usually be tender well before five hours. Test with a skewer from about two hours on, as the recipe itself suggests with its larding-needle test.
- Simmer, never boilThe liquid should shudder rather than bubble. A rolling boil squeezes the meat, breaks the string and clouds the gravy you are about to thicken. An oven at 300F with the lid on is easier to hold steady than a burner.
- Faggot of savoury herbsA tied bundle -- parsley stalks, thyme, a bay leaf, and traditionally a sprig of marjoram or savoury. Tie it so it can be pulled out before the gravy is strained.
- Pounded maceThree blades of mace, crushed, is somewhere in the region of 3/4 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground mace, depending on the size of the blades. Mace is the outer covering (aril) of nutmeg; grated nutmeg is the nearest substitute, used sparingly and tasted as you go.
- ForcemeatBeeton's veal forcemeat runs to breadcrumbs, suet, a little ham or lean bacon, lemon zest, parsley, sweet herbs, mace and egg to bind (butter is a modern stand-in for the suet). Since it sits inside the roll it must reach the same doneness as the meat -- pack it loosely rather than ramming it in, or the centre stays cold and dense.
- Thickening of butter and flourEqual weights kneaded raw into a paste (beurre mani e), whisked into the strained, skimmed liquid and given one boil only. Skim the fat properly first or the sauce will separate.
- Yield and servingStated for 10 to 12, which assumes Victorian service with other dishes on the table; expect fewer portions at a modern meal. Young carrots round the dish and green peas alongside are the period pairing, and both still work.
Shoulder of veal was one of the cheaper cuts of an already awkward meat -- Beeton's 8d. per lb sits well below the price of fillet or loin -- and boning, stuffing and long stewing was the standard way to make a sinewy, gelatinous joint carve neatly for a large table. The forcemeat does double duty: it stretches the meat and it fills the hollow left by the blade-bone so the roll holds its shape. The "seasonable from March to October" note is often said to reflect the dairy calendar rather than any quality of the meat, on the reasoning that calves followed the spring and summer calving of cows, and Victorian household books catalogued dishes by month as a matter of course. Veal itself was far more central to English cooking then than now, being the byproduct of a dairy industry that had no use for bull calves.