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Veal Cutlets in Surprise
Any underdone pieces of veal may be used, trimming them to a nice shape. Mix with some finely-grated breadcrumbs half their quantity of mixed bacon, moderate quantities of chopped parsley and shallot, salt and pepper to taste and a little grated nutmeg. Bind the mixture with the beaten yolk of egg, spread a layer of it over one side of each cutlet, and wrap each in a slice of fat bacon, and then in a sheet of oiled paper, folding it well round the edges. Place a lump of butter in a flat stewpan over the fire; when blue smoke rises put in the cutlets, and fry them from five to ten minutes. When cooked drain the cutlets, place them on a hot dish over which has been spread a folded napkin, garnish with parsley, and serve.
Veal Cutlets, Lyonese Trim the cutlets and dust them on both sides with salt and pepper. Place a lump of lard in a stewpan to melt; then put in the cutlets, and fry them over a brisk fire until done on either side. Drain the fat out of the stewpan, pour over the cutlets one-half teacupful of rich broth, and boil it quickly until reduced to a glaze; then turn the cutlets, pour in the same quantity of broth as before, and reduce that. When finished, arrange the cutlets in a circle on a hot dish. Pour into the stewpan in which they were cooked one-half pint of brown sauce and one teacupful of Madeira wine, and boil it; then add one teacupful of chopped gherkins, two or three tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley and a small piece of butter. When the butter has dissolved pour the sauce over the veal, and serve it.
Veal Cutlets, Maintenon Prepare the cutlets in the usual way, and broil them; but just before they are done take them out to drain and let them cool. Put some bacon cut in the shape of hearts on either side of the cutlets, wrap them round with paper dipped in oil, and broil them on both sides over a clear fire. Veal Cutlets, Marechal Remove the skin and fat from about two ounces of mutton, chop the lean, put it in a mortar, pound it well, and then pass it through a fine hair sieve. Mix with one-half tablespoonful of finely-chopped parsley, and enough cream to bind it, not making it too liquid, and season it with salt, pepper, and a small quantity of grated nutmeg. Trim neatly four or five veal cutlets, dip them in well-beaten egg, and then roll them in breadcrumbs that have been well-seasoned with salt and pepper. The cutlets should be well-covered on both sides with the crumbs. Put some clarified fat into a deep fryingpan and place it over the fire until a column of blue smoke arises, then put in the cutlets and fry them for nearly ten minutes; turn them when browned on one side and brown the other. When fried, drain the cutlets, spread over each a layer of veal mixture, place them side by side in a shallow tin dish, strew a small quantity of finely chopped mushrooms over them, sprinkle very lightly with salt and pepper, and bake them for ten minutes in a moderate oven. When cooked, arrange the cutlets on a hot dish over which has been spread an ornamental dish-paper, garnish them with neat sprigs of parsley, and serve. Veal Cutlets, Milanese Trim the cutlets neatly to about the same size. Boil two ounces of macaroni in salted water; when tender, drain it and stir in one ounce of butter, two ounces of grated Parmesan cheese, and one teacupful of tomato sauce. Mix one teacupful of finely grated breadcrumbs with one teacupful of grated Parmesan cheese, and season well with salt and pepper. Roll the cutlets in warmed butter, and then in the breadcrumbs, and leave them for a few minutes; then dip them in beaten egg and again in the mixture. Place a large lump of dripping or lard in a flat stewpan and place it over the fire; when blue smoke rises, put in the cutlets and fry them until nicely and equally browned. Move the macaroni away from the fire, and stir in the beaten yolk of an egg. Pile this in the center of a hot dish, arrange the cutlets around it, garnish it with fried parsley, and serve.
Veal Cutlets, Perigueux Trim some veal cutlets a little more than an inch in thickness, keeping the bones short, and lard them through with raw truffles cut in square fillets. Line the bottom of a flat stewpan with sliced vegetables and lay the cutlets on them, add veal broth to half their height and a bunch of herbs and parsley, and reduce the broth to half its original quantity; then cover the cutlets with buttered paper, move them to the side of the fire, and simmer slowly, adding a little more broth now and then. When done, drain the cutlets and place them on a circle of forcemeat poached in the dish, having in the center a small bread crustade filled with cooked truffles. Add the trimmings of the truffles to the liquor that the cutlets were cooked in, reduce, skim off the fat, thicken with a little brown sauce, strain it, pour some of it over the cutlets, and serve the balance in a sauceboat.
Veal Cutlets, Provincial Style Trim the cutlets, season them with salt and pepper, flour over, place them in a stewpan with a lump of butter, and fry. When the meat has set drain the fat from the stewpan and pour in some broth to half the height of the cutlets. When the liquor boils move the stewpan to the side of the fire, and keep it simmering until the cutlets are done. Chop fine six large white onions, place them in a stewpan with a lump of butter, and fry them over a moderate fire until nicely browned. Dredge a little flour, pepper and salt over the onions, pour in one-half pint of wine and gravy mixed in equal quantities, and boil them for ten minutes. When cooked, arrange the cutlets in a circle on a hot dish, turn the minced onions and gravy in the center, sprinkle over a little parsley and cayenne pepper, and serve.
A run of seven veal cutlet preparations from Oscar's kitchen, written for cooks who already knew the drill and had a coal range with hot and cool zones. A few conventions need translating before any of them will work on a modern stove.
- "When blue smoke rises"This is the period signal that the fat is at frying heat, just short of its smoke point — for lard, somewhere in the region of 370F, though clarified butter goes considerably higher. Whole butter will burn well before it gets there, so for the Surprise cutlets use clarified butter or add oil, and judge by the shimmer rather than waiting for actual smoke.
- Teacupful and half-pintA teacupful in American books of this era runs about 6 fl oz, three-quarters of a cup, though it is not a standardised measure; a half-pint is a full cup. Where the amount only builds a pan sauce, as in the Lyonese and Provincial recipes, precision matters less than reducing until the sauce coats a spoon.
- Oiled paperButtered or oiled parchment is the modern equivalent, and it is genuinely better than foil here because it lets the packet brown. For Maintenon, broiling a paper-wrapped cutlet over an open flame invites the paper catching; do it in a 425F oven, or under a broiler with the rack set low and the edges folded tight.
- "Underdone pieces of veal"The Surprise cutlets are a leftovers dish — trimmings from a rare roast, re-formed and wrapped. Modern cutlets from the butcher are cut thin and cook through in the five to ten minutes given; bring the finished meat to 145F and let it rest three minutes.
- Oven heat"A moderate oven," as the Marechal cutlets call for, is usually reckoned at somewhere around 350–375F. Ten minutes there is only to set the mutton forcemeat and warm the mushrooms, since the cutlets are already fried through.
- Larding with trufflesPérigueux calls for raw truffles cut in square fillets and threaded through the meat with a larding needle. Fresh black truffle at that price is a special-occasion ingredient now; preserved truffle peelings folded into the finished sauce give most of the aroma for a fraction of the cost, though not the visual effect the recipe is after.
- The mortar workThe Marechal forcemeat — two ounces of lean mutton pounded and sieved — is a small food-processor job, pulsed to a paste and then pushed through a fine sieve for the texture. Keep the meat and cream cold or the mixture will break.
- YieldNone of these give a number of servings; the Marechal alone specifies four or five cutlets. Reckon one cutlet per person; the Milanese macaroni at two ounces dry is a bed rather than a side.
Oscar Tschirky was not a chef — he was the Waldorf's maître d'hôtel, the most famous front-of-house man in America — but the cookbook that carried his name in 1896 gathered the hotel's repertoire, and this page shows how completely that repertoire was French. The names are a roll call of classical garnishes: Maintenon, traditionally attributed to Louis XIV's second wife and generally involving cooking in a wrapper; Périgueux, for the truffle country of the Périgord; Milanese, for the Parmesan crumb and the macaroni; Marechal, a marshal's dish, generally meaning egg-and-crumbed. "In Surprise" is the plainest of them and the most practical, a way of dressing up underdone veal, stuffed and bacon-wrapped inside a paper case. Veal was a staple of the grand hotel kitchen: mild enough to take any sauce, which is one reason a seven-variation entry was worth the space.