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Veal Cutlets
Trim some thinly-cut veal cutlets to a nice shape, flatten them with a cutlet bat, and sprinkle them over with salt and pepper. Mince together in equal quantities some pieces of veal and fat bacon, mix them with one-third of their bulk of finely-grated breadcrumbs, one-half tablespoonful of finely-minced shallot, and a moderate quantity of powdered sweet herbs; bind the mixture with beaten egg, and, when well mixed, cover the cutlets completely with it, smoothing it over with the flat blade of a knife. Roll the cutlets in beaten eggs and breadcrumbs, and fry them until well browned in boiling lard. Drain, place them on a hot dish, pour a well-flavored rich brown gravy over, garnish with slices of lemon, and serve.
Baked Veal Cutlets with Sweet Herbs Put some chopped mushrooms, sweet herbs, winter savory and shallots, with two ounces of butter and some salt and pepper into a stewpan, and stir them over the fire until well mixed and hot. Trim the cutlets nicely, spread over them some of the mixture, brush over with beaten egg, and coat them well with grated breadcrumbs. Place the cutlets on a baking-dish and bake them. Pour one breakfast cupful of white wine and a small quantity of cullis into the saucepan with the remainder of the herbs, and boil; skim the sauce. When cooked, place the cutlets on a hot dish, pour the sauce round, and serve. Braised Larded Veal Cutlets with String Beans Trim some small veal cutlets, keeping the bone very short, and lard them all on the same side with bacon. Place the cutlets in a stewpan with some minced vegetables, and clear stock, and braise them. When cooked glaze the cutlets. Boil some string beans in salted water until tender, then drain, chop them finely, and mix a little butter in with them. Place a flat mound of mashed potatoes on a hot dish, pile the beans in the center, lean the cutlet against the beans, and serve with a sauceboatful of gravy.
Three related preparations run together here, all assuming a professional brigade with stock, glaze and cullis already on hand. The first is the one most worth making at home; the second and third need a substitute for sauces the book expects you to have standing by.
- CullisAn anglicization of coulis, which in this period means a thick strained brown sauce made from veal and ham reduced with flour and stock, not a fruit or vegetable puree. A few tablespoons of reduced veal or beef demi-glace does the same job.
- "Well-flavored rich brown gravy"Probably not simple pan drippings; in this period the phrase points to a brown sauce such as espagnole or a reduced brown veal stock, thickened and glossy. Reduce good veal or beef stock hard, or use a demi-glace, or the coating recipe reads as fried cutlets with nothing behind them.
- Baking temperatureNo number is given for the baked version. Herb-and-crumb coated thin cutlets want a hot oven, 400-425F, for roughly 15-20 minutes, long enough to set the crust without drying the veal.
- Cutlet batA heavy flat metal or wooden pounder. A meat mallet's flat face or the base of a small saucepan will flatten the cutlets to an even quarter inch; the point is even thickness, since these cook fast.
- The forcemeat coatingMinced veal and fat bacon in equal parts, plus a third of that bulk in breadcrumbs, is a godiveau-style farce. Keep the meat and fat cold and pulse rather than puree, or the fat smears and the coating slumps off in the fat.
- Boiling lardFrying temperature, around 350-360F. Because the outer layer here is raw ground veal, this is a deep-fry rather than a shallow saute: the coating needs to cook through, so keep the cutlets thin and give them 6-8 minutes. Neutral oil works as well as lard.
- Winter savorySharper and more peppery than summer savory and rarely stocked fresh. Thyme with a little sage or marjoram is the closest substitute; the "sweet herbs" of the period usually means parsley, thyme, marjoram and a bay leaf.
- Larding "all on the same side"Strips of bacon fat threaded through one surface with a larding needle, presumably so the fat bastes downward as the cutlets braise. Draping thin bacon or fatback over the top achieves much the same effect.
- Breakfast cupfulA breakfast cup runs larger than a teacup, roughly 8 to 10 fl oz.
- YieldFigure one to two cutlets per person. The braised version, with its potato mound and bean center, is plated one portion at a time as written.
Oscar Tschirky's 1896 Cook Book was built out of the working repertoire of the Waldorf, and the veal cutlet section shows how thoroughly that repertoire was French. All three treatments here descend from the classic côtelette de veau variations codified through the nineteenth century: breaded and fried, coated with a forcemeat, or larded and braised with a garnish. "Cullis" and "sweet herbs" are English cookbook words for French things, of a kind common in eighteenth-century English cookery writing. The assumption running under every line, that clear stock, glaze and a finished brown sauce are simply available, marks these as instructions written for cooks in a large kitchen rather than for a household.