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Haricot of Veal
443. Take the best end of a small neck; cut the bones short, but leave it whole; put it into a stewpan, and just cover with brown gravy When it is nearly done, have ready a pint of boiled peas, six cucumbers pared and sliced, and two cabbage-lettuces cut into quarters, all stewed in a little good broth; put them to the veal, and let them simmer ten minutes. When the veal is in the dish, pour the sauce and vegetables over it, and lay the lettuce with forcemeat balls around it.
Another. Take a portion of the breast of veal, or, still better, the best end of a neck, in which case the bones must be a little shortened if required. Brown in a Dutch oven, and then stew it in a good brown stock. When half done add some peas, vegetable marrows, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and turnips cut in squares. The vegetables must be previously fried in butter and stewed in a weak broth, or fried and put to stew at first with the meat. Thicken the gravy if required, and flavour with pepper and salt.
Two versions of the same braise: veal on the bone stewed in brown stock, finished with summer vegetables cooked separately so they keep their shape. The vegetables are the point, and they are the thing most likely to be ruined.
- "Haricot" has nothing to do with beansThe name is usually traced to the older French verb harigoter, to cut up: meat cut small and stewed with vegetables. The derivation is not beyond dispute, but the bean is a separate word. Do not add dried haricot beans; the peas are the only legume involved.
- Best end of neckThis is the rib end of the veal neck, roughly the equivalent of a rack or rib roast. Ask a butcher for veal rib chops left in one piece, or substitute a boned-and-rolled veal shoulder if bone-in veal is hard to source. Breast of veal, the alternative given, is fattier and needs longer.
- Brown gravy means stockIn this period "brown gravy" is a rich brown meat stock rather than a thickened flour sauce. Use good veal or beef stock, enough to just cover the meat; in a close-fitting stewpan that is likely to be a litre or two, but the pan decides.
- Dutch ovenIn a British book of this date a Dutch oven is a tin reflector screen set before the fire, used to brown meat. Brown the veal in a heavy pan on the stovetop or under the broiler instead.
- TimingBone-in veal neck needs 1.5 to 2 hours at a bare simmer, covered, until it gives at the bone. The recipe's "half done" is therefore about 45 minutes to an hour, which is when the vegetables go in — but only the firm ones.
- The vegetables in stagesPeas, cucumber and lettuce want two to three minutes at most; carrots and turnips cut in squares want 15 to 20. Cooking them all together for the stated period turns the cucumber and lettuce to grey pulp. Fry them in butter as instructed, then add them by hardiness, latest first.
- Vegetable marrow and cabbage-lettuceVegetable marrow is an overgrown summer squash; a medium zucchini, seeded if large, does the job. Cabbage-lettuce is a round butterhead type, quartered through the core so it holds together in the pan.
- Forcemeat ballsSmall dumplings of minced veal or pork bound with breadcrumb, egg and suet, poached or fried separately and arranged round the dish. They are a garnish; the dish works without them.
- Thickening and yieldIf the sauce is thin, reduce it hard rather than adding flour — you have a good gelatinous stock to work with. A best end of a small neck serves four to five.
The haricot of veal or mutton was a fixture of English cookery books from the eighteenth century onward, and by the time this one appeared the name had already drifted well away from its French root: the dish is a stew of jointed meat with vegetables, and the resemblance to the bean is coincidental in English. What dates this version is the vegetable list — peas, cucumbers, vegetable marrows, cabbage-lettuces — which marks it as a high-summer dish from a kitchen garden rather than a winter braise. Stewing lettuce and cucumber, now unusual in Britain, was common in the nineteenth century and survives in French cookery in dishes such as petits pois à la française. Veal was a genteel and relatively costly meat in the period, pale and mild, and it suited a dish meant to be presented whole on the bone with forcemeat balls set round the rim.