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Fricandeau of Veal
A fillet of veal, larded with fat bacon, of about three pounds. Braise it one and one-half hours on a moderate fire. Dish with its own gravy. This eats well with spinach, endive, sorrel or carrots.
A terse Belgian braise that assumes you already know what a fricandeau is. The instructions leave out the browning, the liquid and the vegetables, all of which the original cook took for granted.
- The cut, despite the word "fillet"A fricandeau is not tenderloin. It is a thick slab cut with the grain from the leg, usually top round or the cushion (thick flank), about 2 inches deep. Ask for a 3 lb veal top round roast tied into an even block.
- LardingLarding means threading strips of hard back fat or fat salt pork through the meat with a larding needle, since veal has almost no internal fat. Few cooks own the needle now; barding instead, by tying sheets of fatback or unsmoked streaky bacon over the top, gives most of the benefit.
- "Braise on a moderate fire"This means a covered pot over a low flame, not a dry roast. Brown the meat first, add a bed of onion, carrot and a bouquet, pour in stock or stock and white wine to come a third of the way up, cover, and hold at a bare simmer. The book says nothing of an oven, but if you move it to one, a low setting that holds a bare simmer is what you want.
- Time and donenessNinety minutes is what the recipe gives for a 3 lb piece. Braised veal leg goes dry if pushed hard, so start testing for tenderness rather than relying on the clock alone, and rest it before carving.
- The glaze is the hingeA proper fricandeau is glazed, not merely braised. For the last 20 minutes take the lid off and baste the top repeatedly with the pan liquid so it reduces to a shining brown film. Skipping this leaves the dish pale and steamed-tasting.
- "Dish with its own gravy"Strain the braising liquid, skim the fat, and boil it down to a few spoonfuls of syrupy sauce. The recipe mentions no flour or other thickener.
- The accompanimentsEndive here means Belgian endive (witloof), braised in butter, not curly frisee. Sorrel was a standard partner for veal and is worth seeking out; its acidity cuts the richness in a way spinach does not.
- YieldThree pounds of boneless leg serves six generously.
The Belgian Cook Book was assembled in 1915 from recipes contributed by Belgians displaced to Britain after the German invasion, and its plainness is part of the record: these were dishes dictated from memory by people cooking far from their own kitchens, not worked-up restaurant formulas. Fricandeau itself is an old term of French cookery, in print since the seventeenth century and defined by the technique rather than the animal — a thick larded slice braised slowly and glazed with its own reduced juices. Veal and the bitter chicories were both staples of the Low Countries table, and witloof, the blanched Belgian endive named here, is generally traced to Brussels growers in the mid-nineteenth century, which makes its appearance beside a braise like this a distinctly local touch rather than a French borrowing.