No. 2300

Hashed Veal Cakes, Brittany Style

Hachis de Veau en Galettes a la Bretonne

Have one pound of lean leg of veal without any fat or sinews whatever, chop it up and mingle with it half a pound of fresh fat pork, equally chopped, and season with salt, prepared red pepper (No. 168) and mignonette; chop again for a few minutes, then put this hash into a vessel and stir well into it two egg-yolks and a quarter of a pound of mushrooms fried in butter and minced very fine; roll this preparation on a floured table into one inch and three-quarters in diameter balls, then flatten them down to three-eighths of an inch in thickness with the blade of a knife; dip them in beaten eggs, roll in bread-crumbs and smooth the surfaces nicely. Heat some melted butter in a sautoir, range the cakes in this merely to stiffen them on both sides, then drain off half of the fat and moisten to their height with some gravy (No. 404); boil up the liquid and place the saucepan in the oven for one hour, keeping it well covered and basting frequently with their own liquid; remove them from the sautoir with a skimmer, dress them in a deep dish and cover over with minced white onions prepared beforehand, but having half of the strained stock from the cakes added at the last moment.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stockpots already simmering and numbered preparations on hand. Translated into a home kitchen, this is a veal-and-pork patty, breaded, browned, then braised covered in stock and served under an onion purée.

The hinge: fat ratioHalf a pound of fresh pork fat to one pound of lean veal is a third of the total weight, and it is not negotiable. Lean veal braised an hour with less fat turns dry and crumbly; ask a butcher for unsalted fatback or use fatty pork shoulder, not bacon, which would bring cure and smoke the dish does not want.
MignonetteCoarsely cracked peppercorns, usually white. Crack them under a pan rather than grinding fine — the texture is part of the point.
Prepared red pepper (No. 168)One of Ranhofer's own numbered seasoning preparations, cross-referenced but not reproduced here. A scant quarter teaspoon of cayenne is the practical substitute; the dish should be warm, not hot.
Gravy (No. 404)A numbered brown gravy from elsewhere in the book, not described on this page. Unsalted brown veal or chicken stock, lightly reduced, does the job. Keep it lightly seasoned, since an hour of covered braising concentrates it further.
SautoirA straight-sided sauté pan with a lid, ovenproof. The cakes need to sit in one layer with the liquid coming to their height, so choose the pan by the number of cakes rather than by habit.
Oven temperatureRanhofer gives none. A covered braise of this kind wants 325F; the liquid should barely tremble. At a full boil the breading sloughs off and the forcemeat tightens.
An hour is long for ground meatBy modern reckoning the cakes are safe well before the hour is up — ground veal and pork are done at 160F. The extra time is for the braise to soften the forcemeat and flavour the stock, so it earns its place, but only at a low temperature with the lid on.
The onions"Minced white onions prepared beforehand" is left unspecified; the bretonne label points to onions stewed slowly in butter without colour until they collapse. Loosen them at the last moment with half the strained braising liquid, off the direct heat, so they stay pale.
YieldThe stated ball size and the weight of the mixture work out to roughly sixteen to eighteen cakes of 1¾ inches, serving four to six with the onions and the remaining stock passed separately.

A Little History

This is Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the compendium of his thirty-odd years at Delmonico's in New York, and the cross-references to numbered preparations are the book working as a professional manual rather than a household one. Hachis is simply hash: French kitchens of the period turned cooked or raw scraps into forcemeats, croquettes and galettes as a matter of course, and the veal leg here is the trimming-heavy cut that made the technique worthwhile. À la bretonne is one of the classical garnish names, most often attached to white haricot beans, with the onion association belonging chiefly to sauce bretonne — and the pale stewed onion purée spooned over the cakes is the whole justification for the title. The dish sits in a chapter of miscellaneous entrées between hashed pheasant and a venison hash marked "American style," which is a fair picture of what Delmonico's was in the 1890s: a French kitchen running at full classical strength while quietly noting what its New York customers actually ordered.