Veal Birds
Wipe slices of veal from leg, cut as thinly as possible, then remove bone, skin, and fat. Pound until one-fourth inch thick and cut in pieces two and one-half inches long by one and one-half inches wide, each piece making a bird. Chop trimmings of meat, adding for every three birds a piece of fat salt pork cut one inch square and one-fourth inch thick; pork also to be chopped. Add to trimmings and pork one-half their measure of fine cracker crumbs, and season highly with salt, pepper, cayenne, poultry seasoning, lemon juice, and onion juice. Moisten with beaten egg and hot water or stock. Spread each piece with thin layer of mixture and avoid having mixture come close to edge. Roll, and fasten with skewers. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and cry in hot butter until a golden brown. Put in stewpan, add cream to half cover meat, cook slowly twenty minutes or until tender. Serve on small pieces of toast, straining cream remaining in pan over birds and toast, and garnish with parsley. A Thin White Sauce in place of cream may be served around birds.
Veal Loaf I Separate a knuckle of veal in pieces by sawing through bone. Wipe, put in kettle with one pound lean veal and one onion; cover with boiling water, and cook slowly until veal is tender. Drain, chop meat finely, and season highly with salt and pepper. Garnish bottom of a mould with slices of "hard-boiled" eggs and parsley. Put in layer of meat, layer of thinly sliced "hard-boiled" eggs, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley, and cover with remaining meat. Pour over liquor, which should be reduced to one cupful. Press and chill, turn on a dish, and garnish with parsley.
Two dishes share this page: rolled and braised veal cutlets, and a jellied veal loaf built on the gelatin from a sawn knuckle. Both are straightforward once a handful of 1896 conventions are translated.
- "Cry in hot butter" is a typoRead it as fry in hot butter. Brown the floured rolls on all sides over medium heat before they go into the stewpan.
- The cutSlices from the leg pounded to a quarter inch are what a supermarket sells as veal cutlets or scaloppine. Pound between plastic wrap to avoid tearing; the pieces need to hold a filling.
- Fasten with something you can removeSkewers were the period tool. Wooden toothpicks or a turn of kitchen twine work better in a small pan, and count them out as you plate so none reach the table.
- Fat salt porkUnsmoked salt pork or fatback, not bacon, which brings smoke the dish does not want. Pancetta is the closest common substitute. The fat is what keeps the lean stuffing from drying.
- Cracker crumbs and onion juiceCracker crumbs means plain crackers crushed fine, drier and lighter than fresh breadcrumbs. Onion juice is made by grating an onion and using the liquid; a teaspoon of very finely grated onion does the same job.
- Poultry seasoningThe book does not define it; such blends are generally sage-based with thyme and marjoram. Blends vary, so season the forcemeat and check the salt at the end.
- The braiseTwenty minutes at a bare simmer, lid on, cream barely bubbling. Cream at a rolling boil will break and the veal will tighten. If your cream is light or ultra-pasteurized, the thin white sauce alternative is the safer choice.
- Veal Loaf I sets on its own gelatinNothing here gels but the knuckle. Reduce the strained cooking liquor to exactly one cup, taste it for salt while hot, and chill the pressed loaf thoroughly overnight. Keep it refrigerated and eat within two or three days; a lightly set meat jelly is not a keeping food.
Veal birds belong to a large European family of stuffed, rolled cutlets — French oiseaux sans tête, Italian involtini, the German Rouladen — though only the French name refers to birds at all; involtini means little rolls and Rouladen simply means rolled. Fannie Farmer's version is characteristic of the Boston Cooking School's method-first approach: exact dimensions for the cutlet, a fixed ratio of salt pork to trimmings, and a forcemeat that uses up what the butcher's bone and skin left behind. Veal was a staple of respectable American cookery in the 1890s, said to be cheap and abundant in dairy regions, and its bland leanness explains the instruction to season highly. The Veal Loaf that follows shows the other half of the economy: the knuckle, sawed rather than chopped, boiled down until its collagen sets the whole thing into a sliceable cold dish for a sideboard or a summer supper — a household counterpart of the commercial pressed veal and jellied tongue sold at delicatessen counters of the same era.