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Stuffed Breast of Veal
4 pounds breast of veal 1 cup bread-crums 2 slices fat salt pork 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1 teaspoon sweet marjoram 1 teaspoon thyme 1 teaspoon salt The butcher will prepare the veal for stuffing, if requested to do so. If he has not done so, make an incision between, the ribs and the meat, to form a cavity. Fill this cavity with stuffing made from the bread-crums, pork, sweet marjoram, thyme, salt and pepper. Roast, following directions for roast veal.
A plain forcemeat in a pocket cut between the rib bones and the flesh — the same technique still used for stuffed veal breast, minus the oven directions, which the book keeps in a separate entry on roast veal.
- The pocket is the whole jobAsk the butcher to cut a pocket between the ribs and the meat, as the recipe says; doing it yourself means working a boning knife flat along the bones without piercing the outer surface. Sew or skewer the opening closed so the stuffing does not wash out during roasting.
- Oven and timeThe book's directions for roast veal sit in a separate entry not reproduced here, so no temperature can be quoted from it. By modern practice a stuffed breast of this size wants a steady moderate oven, uncovered, roughly 30 minutes per pound — close to two hours for four pounds bone-in.
- DonenessVeal breast is a tough, collagen-rich cut and is better taken past pink — around 160F at the centre of the meat, with the stuffing reaching 165F, the usual figure for stuffing cooked inside meat. Cooking to 145F, correct for a loin, leaves this cut chewy.
- The salt porkTwo slices is perhaps 2 to 3 oz, depending how thickly they are cut. Dice it fine and work it in raw; it renders inside the pocket and is the only fat in an otherwise dry stuffing. Unsmoked bacon or fatback is the closest substitute; taste as you go and hold back some of the teaspoon of salt if the pork is very salty.
- Bread-crumbsThese are soft crumbs torn from day-old bread, not dried crumbs from a canister, which would give a sandy, pasty result. One cup of soft crumbs is a modest amount of stuffing for a four-pound breast; a cup and a half fills the pocket more evenly.
- HerbsThe teaspoon each of marjoram and thyme is generous for dried leaf and about right for fresh, chopped. If using dried, half a teaspoon each may suit modern tastes better.
- MoistureAs written the stuffing has no liquid or egg. A few tablespoons of stock or a beaten egg holds it together and keeps it from drying out over two hours in the oven; without either, expect a loose, crumbly filling.
- Yield and carvingFour pounds bone-in serves four to five. Carve down between the ribs so each portion takes a slab of stuffing with it, and rest the roast 15 minutes first or the filling slides out.