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Hashed Veal
The remains of cold veal can be used and it is better if rather underdone. Cut the meat into thin slices, trimming off all the skin and gristle; slice a couple of onions and shallots, put them in a stewpan with a lump of butter, dredge them over lightly with flour and toss over the fire until they begin to brown. Pour in about three-fourths of a pint of clear broth, add a bunch of sweet herbs and boil gently for ten or fifteen minutes. Place the slices of veal in a clean stewpan, strain the gravy over them, put in one tablespoonful of finely-chopped parsley, the grated peel of half of a small lemon and a little grated nutmeg; season the whole with salt and pepper to taste. Let the hash simmer for five minutes close to the fire. Turn it out onto a hot dish, garnish with sippets of toast or croutons of fried bread, and serve.
A leftovers dish from the Waldorf's kitchen, built on the assumption that a cook has cold roast veal on hand and a pot of broth on the stove. The whole point is gentleness: the veal is already cooked, and the five-minute simmer is only to heat it through.
- The hinge: do not boil the vealThe sauce is finished and strained before the meat goes in. Once the slices are in the pan, keep the liquid at a bare shiver for five minutes; a rolling boil will squeeze cooked veal into grey strings.
- "Rather underdone"The direction points to cold veal that was left a little short of fully cooked the first time, so that reheating brings it to just-done rather than past it. Cold cooked pork or chicken can be treated the same way in this sauce.
- Three-fourths of a pintAbout 1 1/2 cups (12 fl oz) of clear stock, using the US pint. Veal or light chicken stock is right; anything dark or heavily reduced will overwhelm the lemon and nutmeg.
- Bunch of sweet herbsA bouquet garni — parsley stalks, thyme, a bay leaf, tied or bundled so it can be lifted out. It is removed with the straining, which is why the chopped parsley is added separately at the end.
- Dredging the onionsA light dusting of flour over the softened onions and shallots, browned briefly, is a blond roux made in place. Roughly a tablespoon of flour to a tablespoon of butter gives a sauce that naps the meat without turning pasty.
- SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of toast, or bread cubes fried in butter. They go around the edge of the dish and are meant to be eaten with the hash, not as decoration.
- Reheating leftoversCooked meat that has been refrigerated should come back to a steaming 165F throughout. Five minutes in simmering gravy will do it for thin slices; thick chunks want longer, which is another reason to slice the veal thin.
- YieldNot stated. Roughly a pound of cold veal in this quantity of sauce serves three to four, with rice, mashed potato or the toast alone.
Hashed meat dishes were the backbone of nineteenth-century household economy, a way of carrying a roast through the week. The two-pan method is worth noting: the sauce is built, simmered with herbs and strained clean before the meat ever touches it, rather than everything being stewed together until the gravy goes cloudy. The seasoning, too, is older than the book: grated lemon peel and nutmeg with veal is a survival of the English and French practice of scenting pale meats with warm spice, common in eighteenth-century cookery and still standard in veal blanquettes and forcemeats when Oscar Tschirky compiled his book in 1896. Veal itself was far more ordinary on American tables then than now, and a hotel kitchen the size of the Waldorf's generated cold roasts daily; a recipe like this is as much a kitchen management note as a dish.