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Fricandeau of Veal
Fricandeau of veal is properly made from the round muscle which is found on the innerside of the leg of veal, and is called the kernel, or cushion. To obtain it the rest of the leg must be used for dishes which do not require special cuts. A thick cutlet is sometimes used as a fricandeau. Use a medium sized larding-needle and strips of fat salt pork cut less than a fourth of an inch square and two inches long; put the strips of pork or lardoons one by one into the split end of the needle and take a succession of stitches about one-fourth of an inch in length and depth in the upper surface of the veal in a line down the center, then make other lines of lardoons on both sides of the middle line, allowing the ends of the lardoons to come between each other, until the upper surface of the veal is thickly larded. After this is done it may be braised or baked. The fricandeau can be baked on a bed of vegetables, which may afterwards be rubbed through a sieve with a masher and form the basis of a brown gravy, or it may be garnished after cooking with green peas and spinach, or served with brown mushroom sauce. A larded fricandeau is a choice dish, even when it is made from a thick cutlet, if garnished with button mushrooms and truffles. When it is not desirable to use lardoons of pork, bacon strips of cold boiled tongue may replace them, or beef fat, if it be found sufficiently tough to permit it to be pulled through the rather dense fiber of uncooked meat. In larding veal the udder fat makes very passable lardoons. This fat is rather more substantial than that which lies about the kidneys, and which would crumble if drawn into uncooked meat. If the thin, fat membrane that is sometimes spread over spring lamb is cut into small squares it may be used in place of pork.
Fricandeau of Veal with Puree of Sorrel Cut a slice weighing about three pounds from a leg of veal, remove the sinews and lard the surface with fat bacon or pork, using a medium-sized larding-needle. Place it in a sautepan in which there are already pieces of pork skin, one sliced onion, one sliced carrot and a garnished bouquet. Season with one tablespoonful of salt, cover with buttered paper and let it color slightly for five minutes on the stove. Then moisten with one-half pint of white broth and cook for an hour. Serve with one-half pint of puree of sorrel on the dish, placing the veal on top.
Grenadins of Veal, Chipolata The same as for grenadins of veal with puree of green peas, only adding one pint of hot chipolata garnishing instead of the peas. Grenadins of Veal with Puree of Green Peas Cut into half a dozen pieces two pounds of lean veal taken from the leg. Remove the sinews and lard the veal on one side, using a rather coarse needle for the purpose. Lay the pieces on a sautepan with one onion, one carrot and some scraps of pork, and let them brown together for six minutes. Seasons with one tablespoonful of salt, and moisten with one gill of white broth. Place the pan in the oven, covering it with a piece of buttered paper; at the end of thirty minutes, or when the contents are of a good color, remove it, and serve with one-half pint of hot puree of peas, spread on a dish, the grenadins on top, and the gravy strained and poured over all.
Three related dishes built on one technique: larding a lean cut of veal with fat so it bastes itself while braising. The larding is the whole point, and everything else follows from it.
- The cutThe "kernel" or "cushion" is the round muscle from the inside of the leg, sold today as veal top round or cushion of veal. A boneless veal round roast of 3 lb is the right substitute; a thick cutlet works, as Oscar says, but gives a shallower dish.
- Larding, and whyVeal leg is almost fatless and braises dry. Strips of firm fat drawn through the surface melt inward during cooking. A larding needle is still sold, but if you have none, lay thin sheets of fatback or unsmoked bacon over the top and tie them on — less elegant, same effect.
- Fats you will not findUdder fat and the fat membrane from spring lamb (caul) are not stocked at supermarkets. Fatback, salt pork or thick unsmoked bacon are the practical choices; kidney suet does crumble, exactly as the text warns.
- Gill and pintA gill is half a cup, so the grenadins take 1/2 cup of broth. The half pint for the large fricandeau is 1 cup — a shallow braising liquid, not a submersion.
- White brothA pale unroasted veal or chicken stock. Modern low-sodium chicken stock is a fair stand-in, and matters more here than usual because a tablespoon of salt is also going in.
- Cut the saltOne tablespoon of salt over 2 to 3 lb of meat, alongside salt pork and a reducing liquid, will read as harsh to most palates now. Start with a teaspoon and correct the finished gravy.
- Buttered paper and oven heatThe buttered paper functions as a cartouche: parchment cut to the pan, pressed down over the meat to trap steam without sealing it. The book gives no oven temperature; a modern braise at around 325F suits. A 3 lb larded fricandeau needs about an hour, as stated; the grenadins, cut small, want the stated 30 minutes, and no more or they tighten.
- Grenadins and chipolataGrenadins are small thick medallions cut from the leg, larded on one face only. "Chipolata" garnish in this period means a mixture of glazed button onions, carrots, chestnuts and small sausages — not simply sausages.
- SorrelSorrel collapses to a puree in a few minutes and turns olive-drab; that is normal. Its acidity is the reason it is paired with fatty larded veal. Look for it at farmers' markets in spring, or substitute spinach with a squeeze of lemon.
- YieldThe 3 lb fricandeau serves six generously; the grenadins, six pieces, serve six as a plated course.
The fricandeau is a long-established named preparation in French cookery that survived into hotel dining, and it exists because veal leg is lean, pale and cheap relative to loin. Larding — threading fat through the muscle rather than merely wrapping it — was a standard professional answer to lean meat, alongside barding, an equally old and contemporaneously named technique. Oscar Tschirky's book of 1896, a largely compiled volume issued under his name, appeared when the hotel was a proving ground for French technique in New York, and the tell is in the throwaway lines about substitute fats: udder fat, lamb caul, cold boiled tongue. Those were the improvisations of a large kitchen that broke down whole carcasses and used everything, and their disappearance from the list of things a cook can casually reach for says more about how meat now arrives at the kitchen door than about the dish itself.