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Stuffed Breast of Veal
Make an incision between the ribs and the meat to form a cavity, in which to place the stuffing. The butcher will, however, prepare the veal for stuffing, if ordered to do so. Use for the dressing one cup of bread crumbs; one-fourth pound of fat salt pork; one teaspoon of sweet marjoram; one teaspoon of thyme; one teaspoon of salt; one-fourth teaspoon of pepper. The pork should be chopped very fine and should make about a large tablespoon when chopped. Butter may be used in its place, if preferred. Roast the same as plain veal.
A stuffed veal breast is a braise dressed up as a roast: the cut is thin, bony and full of connective tissue, and the original assumes a cook who already knows what "roast the same as plain veal" means. The notes below fill in what the page leaves out.
- The quantity contradictionOne-fourth pound of salt pork will not "make about a large tablespoon when chopped" — a quarter pound is closer to half a cup. Read the tablespoon as the intended amount for one cup of crumbs and treat the weight as a slip; if you use the full quarter pound the dressing will be a paste of fat.
- Scale the stuffing upOne cup of crumbs fills a pocket in a small breast only. A whole veal breast of 4-6 lb wants three to four times this dressing — roughly 3-4 cups of dry crumbs with the seasonings multiplied to match, moistened with stock or an egg so it holds together.
- Salt porkCured fatback, not bacon: it is unsmoked and very salty. Blanch it briefly if you want to soften the salt, and cut back the teaspoon of salt in the dressing accordingly. Butter, as the book allows, is the straightforward substitute at about 2 tablespoons per cup of crumbs.
- HerbsA teaspoon each of marjoram and thyme most likely means dried leaf, though the recipe does not say which. If using fresh, triple it.
- Bread crumbsThe recipe does not specify. Crumbs here mean stale bread rather than the sandy commercial kind; whether dried in a low oven or used soft, torn stale bread rubbed through the hands is a safe reading.
- The oven, since the book will not sayNo temperature is given here, so what follows is a modern equivalent rather than the book's own direction: sear at 450F for 15-20 minutes, then drop to 325F and allow about 30 minutes per pound, basting. Veal breast is better taken to 160-165F internal than pulled at 145F, as it needs time for the connective tissue to soften.
- Better still, braise itCovered, with an inch of stock in the pan for the last two hours, the breast turns tender where dry roasting leaves it stringy. Uncover for the final 20 minutes if you want colour.
- Carving and yieldCut down between the rib bones so each portion carries a section of stuffing. A 4-5 lb breast serves six generously; count on considerable weight in bone.
Breast of veal is a thrift cut — the underside of the ribs, thin, bony and cheap — and the pocket-and-stuffing treatment exists precisely because there is not enough meat on it to stand alone. Nearly every European kitchen has a version: the French poitrine de veau farcie, the Italian cima alla genovese stuffed with eggs and vegetables, and the Ashkenazi stuffed veal breast that became a holiday dish in American Jewish households. The Butterick Publishing Company sold dress patterns long before it sold cookbooks, and its cookbook speaks to a household that bought whole primal cuts and had a relationship with a butcher who would cut the pocket on request — a line that reads today as a courtesy but was then simply how meat was ordered. The salt pork in the dressing reflects the older American habit of keeping fat as a pantry staple, used wherever butter would be an extravagance; the book also allows butter in its place.