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To Stew a Knuckle of Veal (Good gravy and a few small)
good gravy and a few small bits of bacon; cover close, and stew till nearly done enough. Take it out, and strain the gravy through a sieve; skim off all the fat, and take as much of the liquor as is required, and thicken it with flour and butter, and flavour with lemon pickle or juice, walnut and mushroom ketchup, or Worcestershire sauce.
Another.-Break the ribs of a breast of veal in two places, lard it with bacon, and roast till nearly done. Season some strong broth with mace, nutmeg, salt and pepper, and anchovy. Strain it, then put the veal in a stewpan and cover with the broth; boil some forcemeat balls a little in salt and water, then add them to the stew with some sweetbreads cut and fried, the bottoms of artichokes, truffles and morels, (or, in place of the latter, dried champignons, which are found in our English pastures). Thicken the gravy, if preferred, with flour and butter, lay the slices of sweetbread with rolled bacon on the veal, and fry some of the forcemeat in puff paste to lay round the dish-a little lemon juice and white wine may be added with ketchup.
Two related dishes: a stewed veal joint finished with a thickened, sharply seasoned gravy, and a larded breast of veal part-roasted and then stewed in spiced broth with a garnish of sweetbreads, forcemeat and mushrooms. The instructions assume a cook who already knows how to handle a joint, so the useful work is in translating the seasonings and the garnish.
- The hinge: part-roast, then stewThe second version turns on roasting the larded breast only until nearly done before it goes into the seasoned broth, and the first likewise stews only "till nearly done enough" before the gravy is strained and thickened. Veal breast and knuckle are collagen-heavy and need long, gentle heat; a bare simmer holds the meat together, while a rolling boil shreds it and clouds the gravy.
- Ketchup does not mean tomatoWalnut and mushroom ketchups here are thin, dark, salty condiments closer to a mushroom soy or Worcestershire than to anything sweet. Mushroom ketchup is still sold; a spoonful of soy plus a dash of anchovy stands in adequately.
- Lemon pickleA period store-cupboard staple of salted, spiced lemons steeped and strained, used to add acid and aromatics at once. Lemon juice with a scrape of zest and a pinch of mace covers the same ground.
- Anchovy in the brothAn anchovy meant a whole salted fish, rinsed and dissolved into the liquid; one to two anchovy fillets, or a teaspoon of anchovy paste, per quart of broth is the right order of magnitude. It should read as savoury depth, not as fish.
- Morels and champignonsThe dried field mushrooms of English pasture referred to here are no longer a shop item. Dried morels or dried porcini, soaked and the strained soaking liquid added to the broth, give the same perfume; truffle is optional and a very small quantity goes far.
- SweetbreadsOrder veal sweetbreads ahead from a butcher. They are usually soaked in several changes of cold water, blanched, pressed and trimmed of membrane before slicing and frying, none of which the original spells out.
- Artichoke bottomsThese are the trimmed bases of large globe artichokes, not the hearts sold in oil. Tinned or frozen artichoke bottoms are a fair substitute; drain and warm them in the gravy at the end so they do not disintegrate.
- ThickeningFlour and butter here means beurre manie or a light roux whisked into the strained, degreased liquor. Reckon roughly a tablespoon each of flour and butter per cup of gravy, and simmer two or three minutes to lose the raw flour taste.
- Oven and yieldThe original gives no temperature and no yield. "Nearly done" here means roasted only until the surface is coloured and the meat still firm, before it goes into the broth; a moderate oven will do the job for a modern cook. The forcemeat and sweetbread garnish makes it a dinner-table centrepiece rather than a plain supper.
Knuckle and breast of veal were the cheap ends of an expensive animal, and cookery books of the period treat them as a chance to show technique rather than to show off ingredients: lard the meat with bacon to supply the fat it lacks, brown it, then stew it in seasoned broth and dress it up with forcemeat balls, fried sweetbreads, artichoke bottoms and dried mushrooms. The garnish list, and the finish of lemon pickle, walnut or mushroom ketchup and white wine, belongs to a long English tradition of building savoury intensity from bottled and preserved seasonings. The passing note that dried champignons may replace morels because they are found in English pastures is a reminder that these books were written when a cook might still gather part of the dinner.