No. 1528

Leg or Haunch of Veal, a la Miribel

Cuissot de Veau a la Miribel

Bone as far as the joint, a medium sized haunch of veal; sew it up oval-shaped, and lay it in a braziere lined with fat pork and vegetables; moisten with a pint of broth (No. 194a), let fall to a glaze and moisten again to half its heighth with broth or water, season, cover with a buttered paper and let the liquid come to a boil, then reduce it to half, and set it in the oven to cook slowly while basting and turning it over every half hour; it will take three hours to cook properly. Dress, glaze it nicely and pour into the dish half of the reduced gravy serving the remainder in a saucetureen, having it added to the same quantity of tomato sauce (No. 549) and then reduced. Send to the table at the same time a dish of vegetables composed of fried cauliflower, fried egg-plant, fried potatoes and rice croquettes.

← No. 1527 Veal Kidneys with White Wine Veal No. 1529 Calf's Light a la Mariniere →

For the Modern Kitchen

A boned and rolled veal leg braised in the classic French manner, with the cooking liquid doing double duty as glaze and sauce. The technique hangs on the reduction, not the clock.

"Let fall to a glaze"This is the hinge of the recipe. The first pint of stock is reduced until it is a sticky film on the bottom of the pan, which caramelizes the sugars and gives the finished gravy its color and body. Only then do you add the second, larger quantity of liquid. Skip it and you get pale, thin braising juice.
BraziereA heavy braising pan with a close-fitting lid, not a modern casserole dish. Any Dutch oven that holds the joint with an inch or two to spare will do. (The recipe's "oval-shaped" refers to how the boned joint is sewn up, not to the pan.)
Fat pork and the buttered paperThe pork lines the pan under the meat, enriching the liquid and keeping the lean veal off the hot metal; use sliced fatback or unsmoked salt pork rather than bacon, whose smoke will dominate. The buttered paper is laid over the meat.
Oven temperatureThe recipe only says to cook slowly and gives no figure; a low oven, somewhere around 300-325F, will hold the pan at a bare simmer for the three hours of basting and turning called for.
Three hours, but check temperatureA boned, tied leg is done at about 145-150F at the center; larger joints may need the full three hours, smaller ones considerably less. Overcooking turns veal dry and fibrous no matter how much liquid is in the pan.
Scale and yieldA whole veal haunch is a very large piece of meat, plausibly 15-20 lb, and was meant to serve a table of many. For a domestic kitchen, buy a boned and rolled leg of 5-6 lb, cut the stock to about a cup for the first glaze, and reduce the cooking time accordingly.
The cross-referenced numbersNo. 194a is Ranhofer's broth; a good unsalted veal or chicken stock stands in. No. 549 is his tomato sauce, a stock-based sauce rather than a pasta sauce, so use something thin and savory that will reduce well with the braising gravy.
Glazing the jointBrush the drained meat repeatedly with a few spoonfuls of the heavily reduced cooking liquid, returning it to a hot oven briefly between coats until it shines. Season the reduction at the end, not the beginning, since it concentrates several times over.
The garnishFried cauliflower, fried eggplant, fried potatoes and rice croquettes are sent to the table as a separate dish, not arranged around the meat.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a record of the restaurant's kitchen, and the veal chapter ranges over much of the calf: kidneys, lights, head, and grand braised joints like this one. Names ending "a la" plus a proper noun were common currency in nineteenth-century haute cuisine, honoring patrons, places, or generals; Miribel may refer to the French place name or family, but no dedication is documented and Ranhofer gives no explanation. What the recipe suits is a large brigade kitchen: a braised haunch of this size was carved for many covers at once, the cooking liquid became two sauces, and the fried vegetable garnish came off the same stove as everything else. Braising was one common treatment for the lean leg of veal, and the glaze-then-moisten method described here is a standard French braising sequence.