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Rolled Veal
Bone a loin of veal and trim it neatly. Prepare a stuffing with finely-minced bacon and breadcrumbs, seasoning them with grated lemon peel, sweet herbs, pounded mace, salt and pepper and cayenne pepper, and binding it all with beaten egg. Spread the mixture over the veal, roll it up, bind it tightly to keep it in shape, place it in a stewpan, lay a few slices of fat bacon on the top, cover it with nicely-flavored stock, and stew it gently for four hours. When cooked remove the veal from the fire and allow it to partly cool in the stock; then drain it, put it between two dishes, with a weight on the top, and leave till cold. Remove the bindings and brush it over with melted glaze. Spread a folded napkin on a dish, place the veal on, garnish with parsley, and serve.
A cold pressed veal roll of the kind that carried a Waldorf buffet or a supper table. The recipe assumes a professional larder, so quantities, timings and the glaze all need translating.
- What to buyA boned veal loin runs about 4-5 lb trimmed and will serve eight to ten as a cold dish. Loin is very lean; boned shoulder or breast behaves better in a long moist braise and slices just as well when pressed.
- Stuffing proportionsNone are given. For a 4-5 lb roll, work with roughly 8 oz finely minced bacon to 2 cups fresh breadcrumbs, the grated zest of one lemon, a teaspoon of ground mace, and one or two beaten eggs to bind. It should hold together when squeezed, not be wet.
- Sweet herbsPeriod shorthand for the mild kitchen herbs rather than anything sugared: parsley, thyme, marjoram, a little sage. A tablespoon or two of the mixture, chopped fine, is enough.
- Pounded maceMace is the outer covering of the nutmeg, sold today already ground. "Pounded" simply means reduced to powder in a mortar; ground mace off the shelf is the same thing, and half the quantity of grated nutmeg will stand in.
- Four hours is too longFour hours is longer than needed -- a boned, rolled loin held at a bare simmer is generally done in about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, when a skewer meets no resistance. Pushed to four it risks shredding, so the slices crumble instead of cutting clean.
- Tying and pressingRoll with the grain running the length of the roll and tie at 1-inch intervals with butcher's twine so it slices in neat rounds. For the pressing, a sheet pan on top of the meat with two or three cans on it gives about the right weight.
- Cooling safely"Partly cool in the stock" was written for a cold larder. Cool it only until you can handle it, no more than an hour, then press it and get it into the refrigerator. Meat left to drift slowly through blood heat in its own broth is exactly the condition that invites trouble.
- The glazeMelted glaze is the braising liquid strained, degreased and reduced until it is syrupy and sets to a firm jelly when cold. Brush it on the chilled roll in thin coats, letting each set. A little softened gelatine in the reduced stock makes it more reliable at room temperature.
- ServingSlice thin, cold, off the roll. The folded napkin under the meat is Victorian presentation, and would also catch any weeping juices; parsley and a sharp pickle or mustard do more for the plate.
Rolled and pressed veal belongs to the nineteenth-century tradition of cold "made dishes" for buffets, ball suppers and sideboard service, where a joint had to be carved in advance, look composed under lamplight, and hold for hours without a chafing dish. The technique of boning, stuffing, binding and pressing under weight is closely related to that behind galantine and the French ballotine, and similar rolled-veal recipes recur in nineteenth-century English cookery books. Veal suited the job because it is pale, mild and gelatinous enough that its own braising liquid sets to a jelly, which is what the "melted glaze" is; the pressing forces out air pockets so the cut face is solid rather than gappy. Oscar Tschirky's book collects the standing repertoire of a large hotel kitchen at the turn of the century, and the absence of quantities here suggests it was written for cooks already familiar with the method.