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Roast Loin of Veal
Wash and rub thoroughly with salt and pepper, leaving in the kidney, around which put plenty of salt; roll up, let stand two hours; in the meantime make dressing of bread-crumbs, salt, pepper, and chopped parsley or thyme moistened with a little hot water and butter-some prefer chopped salt pork-also add an egg. Unroll the veal, put the dressing well around the kidney, fold, and' secure well with several yards white cotton twine, covering the meat in all directions; place in the dripping-pan with the thick side down, put to bake in a rather hot oven, graduating it to moderate heat afterward; in half an hour add a little hot water to the pan, baste often; in another half hour turn over the roast, and when nearly done, dredge lightly with flour, and baste with melted butter. Before serving, carefully remove the twine. A four-pound roast thus prepared will bake thoroughly tender in about two hours. To make the gravy, skim off fat if there is too much in the drippings, dredge some flour in the pan, stir until it browns, add some hot water if necessary, boil a few moments and serve in gravy-boat. This roast is very nice to slice down cold for Sunday dinners. Serve with green pease and lemon jelly.
A bone-in or boned veal loin, stuffed around its own kidney and tied. The method is sound; the timings belong to an era when veal was cooked until it fell apart.
- Oven temperatures"Rather hot" here means about 425F for the first 20-30 minutes to set the surface, then "moderate" is 325-350F for the remainder. The two-stage approach is doing what a modern sear-then-roast does.
- Doneness, not clock timeTwo hours for a four-pound loin will take it well past dry. Roast to an internal temperature of 145F at the thickest point and rest 15 minutes; on a 4 lb loin that is usually 60-80 minutes total, less if boned and rolled thin.
- The kidneyVeal kidney is a special order from a butcher now. Soak it briefly in cold water, trim the hard white core, and pat dry, or leave it out entirely and simply stuff the cavity with the dressing. The kidney fat that the recipe assumes will be present is what bastes the interior.
- The two-hour standSalt the meat and let it stand in the refrigerator, not on the counter. The salt draws moisture and then reabsorbs it, which is the point; ambient temperature is not.
- Tying"Several yards" of twine is not an exaggeration for a boned loin rolled around stuffing. Use butcher's twine at roughly one-inch intervals along the length, and cut it away after resting, not before, or the roll relaxes and the dressing spills.
- The dressingBread-crumbs here means torn or coarsely crumbled stale bread, not dry packaged crumbs, which will absorb the butter and set hard. The egg binds it; the salt pork variant adds the fat that lean modern veal lacks.
- Basting and the flour dredgeThe flour sprinkled on near the end browns into a thin crust and thickens the drippings. Do it in the last 10 minutes only, or it scorches in the pan.
- GravyDredging flour straight into the hot fat and stirring until it browns is a pan roux. Add liquid gradually and off the direct heat to avoid lumps; stock or the pea cooking water is better than plain hot water.
- YieldA 4 lb loin will serve roughly six hot, rather less if bone-in, and the recipe's suggestion of cold slices assumes some is held back.
Loin of veal roasted around its own kidney is an English joint that passed into American cookbooks largely unchanged. The kidney and its surrounding suet were part of the joint as it came from the butcher, so the recipe simply works with what was there rather than discarding it. The green peas suggest a late-spring or early-summer dish, and veal was widely thought a bland meat that wanted something sharp beside it. The note that it slices well cold for Sunday dinner is also of its period, when a large joint roasted once was expected to reappear at a second and third meal.