Veal Loaf
This dish may be served cold, or hot, with the sauce given below; two and one-half pounds of veal; one-half pound of salt pork; two teaspoons of salt; one-half teaspoon of pepper; one teaspoon of chopped onion; one-half cup of cracker crumbs; one-fourth cup of water or stock; one egg; two tablespoons of butter; one-half teaspoon of sage. Chop the veal and pork very fine and add all the other ingredients, except the butter. Mix all well together with the hands. Butter a small pan or deep pie tin, and press the mixture into it like a loaf, making it about three inches high. Cook for two hours in a rather hot oven, basting with another half cup of water or stock in which the butter has been melted. Serve with the following sauce: two tablespoons of butter; two tablespoons of flour; one cup of milk; salt and pepper to taste. Heat the butter hot and stir in the flour. When well browned, draw the pan back and slowly add the milk. Boil for three minutes stirring all the time; add salt and pepper and set back to keep hot. Pour into the sauce the gravy that remains in the pan after baking the loaf, and having stirred the sauce well, turn it over the loaf and serve.
A straightforward forcemeat loaf that predates the ground-beef meatloaf most cooks know. The chief adjustment is time: two hours in a hot oven will dry this out badly by current standards.
- Oven temperature"A rather hot oven" in this period corresponds to something in the region of 400F, though period terms were not standardised. A moderate 350F suits the loaf better and reduces the crusting on the outside before the centre is done.
- Cooking timeTwo hours reflects unreliable ranges and a fear of underdone veal. A loaf of this size, about 3 lb of meat at 3 inches high, reaches 160F in the centre in roughly 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Cook to the thermometer, not the clock, and let it rest 10 minutes before slicing.
- Chopping the meat"Chop very fine" means what a grinder now does. Ask for veal shoulder ground once, or pulse cubed shoulder in a food processor in small batches until it looks like coarse mince rather than paste.
- Salt porkSalt pork is still sold, usually near the bacon, but modern cures vary in strength. Blanch it briefly in water if it tastes aggressively salty, and taste before committing to the full two teaspoons of added salt. Unsmoked pork belly or fatty ground pork works as a substitute.
- Cracker crumbsPeriod cracker crumbs generally came from plain soda or water crackers rather than a seasoned one. Half a cup of crushed saltines or unseasoned crackers is the closest match; dried breadcrumbs are drier and will want an extra spoonful of stock.
- BastingThe half cup of buttered water or stock is poured over during cooking, not into the mixture. Add it in two or three goes so the pan never runs dry and the drippings do not scorch, since those drippings finish the sauce.
- The sauceThis is a brown roux, not a white one: the flour is cooked in the butter until it colours before the milk goes in. Add the milk off the heat and in a thin stream to avoid lumps, and expect a tan gravy rather than a bechamel.
- YieldServes six to eight hot. Cold, sliced thin, it makes sandwiches for several days and firms up considerably once chilled.
Veal loaf belongs to a family of pressed, chopped-meat dishes that filled the same place in an American household that terrines and galantines filled in French kitchens: a way to stretch a modest quantity of meat, serve it hot at dinner and cold at supper or luncheon the next day. Veal was the natural choice because it is lean and mild, which is exactly why the recipe insists on half a pound of salt pork, an egg and butter, all supplying the fat and seasoning the veal lacks. Sage and onion, in these small quantities, are the standard English forcemeat flavouring carried over into American cookery. The recipe is often associated with the Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns and The Delineator, which issued cookbooks aimed at the same middle-class housekeeper, though the connection is not established here; a dish that yields two meals from one baking is very much in that spirit.