No. 1493

Breast of Veal a la Menagere

Poitrine de Veau a la Menagere

Have a fine fat breast of veal; prick the skin with a needle, cover over with a cloth; strike it several blows with a cleaver, then fry it lightly in butter, and when nicely browned, remove and trim it into an oval-shape; return it to the saucepan, add small bits of bacon, carrot, and turnip in the shape of balls; moisten with white wine and stock, then let fall to a glaze. Remoisten again and cook the meat in a slow oven while moistening frequently until thoroughly done, then dress it with the carrots on one side and the turnips on the other, the pieces of bacon on the ends; strain the gravy, free it of its fat, and reduce it to a half-glaze. Just when ready to serve, add to half of the gravy a liberal piece of fresh butter, lemon juice, and chopped parsley, serve it in a sauce-boat; pour over the breast the remaining gravy.

← No. 1492 Breast of Veal with Tomatoes, Queen Style—St Veal No. 1494 Calf's Crow a la Normande →

For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward braise dressed up with turned vegetables and a two-part sauce. The hinge is the reduction: the liquid is deliberately cooked down to a glaze twice, which is where the depth of flavour comes from.

The cutBreast of veal is the belly section, bone-in, fatty and full of connective tissue — a braising cut, commonly around 4 to 6 lb though it varies with the size of the animal. Butchers often do not stock it; order ahead, or substitute boneless veal shoulder, which behaves similarly, though the breast's bones and cartilage give a more gelatinous result.
Pricking and poundingThe needle is presumably to keep the tough outer membrane from contracting and curling as it cooks; the cleaver blows, struck through a cloth, tenderise the meat and even it out, with the cloth protecting the surface from tearing.
"Let fall to a glaze"Reduce the wine and stock until only a shining, syrupy film remains on the bottom of the pan and the meat begins to catch. This caramelised layer is dissolved by the next addition of liquid. Watch it closely at the end — it goes from glaze to burnt in under a minute.
Slow oven300 to 325F, with the pan covered or partly covered. Expect 2½ to 3 hours for a full breast; it is done when a skewer meets no resistance and the meat pulls from the rib bones.
Vegetables in ballsCarrot and turnip cut into small spheres, either with a melon baller or turned with a paring knife. They will collapse if given the full braising time — add them for the last 40 minutes or cook them separately in a little of the braising liquid.
The baconPeriod recipes of this kind generally intend a lightly cured pork — salt pork or lardons of fresh-cured belly — rather than modern heavily smoked bacon, which will dominate the sauce; blanch it two minutes in boiling water first if that is all you have.
Half-glazeStrain the braising liquid, let the fat rise and skim it, then reduce until it lightly coats a spoon — thinner than a true glaze, roughly the consistency of demi-glace. Season only at this point, since reduction concentrates the salt from the bacon and stock.
Finishing the sauceThe butter, lemon juice and parsley go into half the reduced gravy off the heat, swirled in so the butter emulsifies. If it boils after the butter is added it will break and turn greasy.
YieldA 5 lb breast serves six generously. Carve across the grain, between the rib bones if bone-in.

A Little History

À la ménagère means "housewife's style" or "housekeeper's style," and in nineteenth-century French kitchen vocabulary it signalled a homely, thrifty treatment: a cheap cut, root vegetables, a bit of bacon, no elaborate garnish. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894, nonetheless gives it the full professional apparatus — the meat trimmed to an oval, the vegetables cut into balls, the braising liquid glazed and reglazed, the gravy split so half is finished with butter and served apart. That combination is characteristic of the book as a whole: peasant logic executed to restaurant standard. Breast of veal was in any case a cheap cut, and the long, frequently moistened braise is the classic answer to a cut this tough.