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Roasted Chump of Veal
Place a chump of veal in a deep dish, sprinkle some mixed herbs, pepper and salt over, cover it with white wine and allow it to soak for two days. At the end of that time lard the veal with some strips of bacon and roast it in a brisk oven. Meanwhile prepare some ravigote sauce. When cooked place the chump of veal on a hot dish, pour the sauce over, and serve.
A short recipe that assumes a butcher, a larding needle and a cook who already knows ravigote. The gaps are all in the details Oscar left out.
- What a chump isThe chump is the hindquarter end of the loin, between loin and leg — in the US usually sold as sirloin of veal or a veal rump roast. Ask for a 3-4 lb bone-in piece; a boneless rolled and tied roast works the same way.
- Two days of soaking means refrigeratedMarinate in a covered non-reactive dish in the refrigerator, turning once or twice a day, and discard the wine after; do not leave meat under wine on a counter for two days.
- Mixed herbsFor veal this would typically have run to thyme, bay, parsley stems and perhaps a little marjoram, with a few peppercorns; the mixture was never standardised. Fresh is fine, and a sliced onion and carrot in the dish will not hurt.
- LardingStrips of bacon or fat salt pork are threaded through the meat with a larding needle to keep lean veal from drying. Without a needle, cut narrow channels with a thin knife and push the strips in, or bard the roast by tying sheets of fat or bacon over the surface.
- A brisk ovenRoughly 400-450F. Start there for 15-20 minutes to color the fat, then drop to 325-350F to finish, basting with pan juices.
- Cook to temperature, not to the clockVeal sirloin is done at 145-150F in the center, roughly 18-20 minutes per pound at the lower temperature. Pushed past 160F it turns dry and grainy, which is exactly what the larding was meant to prevent. Rest it 15 minutes before carving.
- Ravigote sauceThe hot version is the one wanted here: a velouté or veal-stock sauce finished with white wine vinegar, shallot, and chopped chervil, chives and tarragon added off the heat. The cold vinaigrette-style ravigote also carries the name, but it does not suit a hot roast poured over. Add the herbs at the end — held over heat they go dull and brown.
- YieldA 3-4 lb chump serves about six, with the pan drippings deglazed into the sauce.
Chump of veal is a British butcher's term, and its appearance in Oscar Tschirky's book is typical of the Waldorf's turn-of-the-century menus: a plain roast raised in status by a long wine marinade and a classical sauce. Ravigote — from the French ravigoter, to revive or perk up — is one of the old sauce family whose whole purpose is sharpness, vinegar and green herbs cutting the blandness of veal, and Escoffier lists both a hot and a cold form. Veal was a staple of grand hotel cookery, plentiful in part because bull calves were a byproduct of dairying; cuts like the chump, cheaper than the loin, gave the kitchen a large, carvable roast for the table d'hote at a reasonable cost.