No. 2285

Escalops of Kernel of Veal a l'Arnold

Escalopes de Noix de Veau a l'Arnold

Cut some thin slices from the round bottom of veal, pare them shapely an eighth of an inch thick by one and three-quarters inches in diameter, range in a buttered sautoir on a brisk fire and fry both sides to a fine color, then drain off the butter and replace it by some sherry wine, mushroom catsup, anchovy essence, finely shredded lemon peel, cream and veloute sauce (No. 415); heat the whole, removing the sautoir at the first boil. Dress the slices of veal, reduce the sauce and pour it over; garnish around with small triangle croutons of bread fried in butter.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A fast sauté with a pan sauce built in the same pan, from Charles Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen. The whole thing takes minutes once the veal is cut, and the only real risk is overcooking.

The hinge: barely cook the vealSlices an eighth of an inch thick by under two inches across need roughly 30 to 45 seconds a side in hot butter, and no more. Ranhofer's instruction to pull the pan at the first boil of the sauce is the second half of the same idea: the veal finishes in the residual heat, and a real simmer turns it grey and tight.
Noix de veauThe noix is the rounded cushion of muscle on the inside of the leg, what a modern butcher sells as top round or the veal cushion. Ranhofer's "round bottom of veal" points to the same area. Any lean solid piece of leg will cut cleanly into rounds; loin is a waste here.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow pan with a wide flat base, not a casserole dish. Use a heavy skillet or sauté pan broad enough to hold the escalopes in one layer without touching, since crowding steams them.
A brisk fireHigh heat. The point is colour on both faces before the interior sets, so the pan should be hot enough that the butter is foaming and just beginning to brown when the veal goes in.
Velouté No. 415A blond roux sauce made with veal or chicken stock rather than milk. If you are not making the book's version, a well-reduced light veal stock thickened lightly with a butter-and-flour roux does the same work. Allow roughly half a cup of velouté and a few tablespoons of cream for four servings.
Mushroom catsup and anchovy essenceBoth were bottled savoury condiments, not tomato ketchup. Mushroom ketchup is still sold and is thin, dark and salty; a good substitute is mushroom soy or a spoonful of concentrated mushroom stock. Anchovy essence is close to anchovy paste thinned with a little water. Use these in teaspoons and taste as you go, since both are aggressively salty and the sauce will be reduced further.
No quantities givenThis is a chef's shorthand entry that assumes a stocked kitchen. For four portions, a workable starting point is 2 tablespoons sherry, a teaspoon each of mushroom ketchup and anchovy essence, the zest of half a lemon in fine shreds, 3 tablespoons cream and the velouté above. Reduce until it coats a spoon.
Reducing after dressingThe veal comes out onto the platter first, then the sauce is reduced hard and poured over. Do not reduce with the meat sitting in the pan, or the slices overcook while the sauce thickens.
CroutonsSmall triangles of crustless bread fried in butter until crisp, set around the edge of the dish at the last moment. Fried ahead they go soft; fried in the veal pan they pick up the fond, which is no bad thing.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its entrée chapters run to hundreds of near-identical templates distinguished only by their sauces and their dedications. The suffix à l'Arnold reads as the kind of house tribute Delmonico's attached to its plates, but the book does not explain the name. What is distinctive here is the sauce: sherry, mushroom ketchup and anchovy essence are English store-cupboard flavourings rather than French ones, and their appearance inside a classical velouté is characteristic of the Anglo-American dining rooms Ranhofer cooked for. Bottled mushroom ketchup and anchovy essence were staples of nineteenth-century pantries on both sides of the Atlantic, valued for supplying depth of flavour from a bottle at a time when glutamate-rich seasonings had no other name.