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M. a. T (Boil the veal tender pick it)
Boil the veal tender, pick it up fine, put in a mould, add the water it was boiled in, and set it in a cold place; season with salt and pepper to taste; a layer of hard boiled eggs improves it.
This is jellied veal — a shredded-meat loaf set in its own broth — written in the shorthand of a cook who assumed you knew the dish already. Two things decide whether it works: the cut of veal and how far you reduce the cooking liquid.
- The hinge: gelatinThe set comes entirely from collagen in the meat, so use bone-in veal shank, breast or shoulder rather than lean cutlets. If the chilled broth does not wobble firmly on a cold spoon, soften 1 envelope (about 2 1/4 tsp) of powdered gelatin per 2 cups of liquid and stir it into the hot broth.
- Quantities, since none are givenAbout 3 lb bone-in veal, water to cover, and roughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups of reduced broth for a standard 8 x 4-inch loaf pan. Serves six to eight as a cold plate.
- Reduce the liquidThe recipe says only to add back "the water it was boiled in." It works best if you strain that liquid and simmer it down until it tastes strongly of veal, skimming as you go; otherwise the loaf will be watery and bland.
- "Pick it up fine"Pull the meat into shreds with your fingers while it is still warm, discarding gristle, skin and bone. Chopping it on a board gives a pasty texture; hand-shredding leaves the fibres that hold the loaf together when sliced.
- Boil the veal tenderA bare simmer, 2 to 2 1/2 hours for shank, until the meat gives up the bone. A rolling boil clouds the broth and makes the jelly murky rather than translucent.
- Season cold food harderSalt and pepper judged in a hot pot will taste flat once the loaf is chilled. Taste the broth when it is warm, then push the seasoning slightly past what seems right. The recipe calls for salt and pepper only; other jellied-veal recipes of the period sometimes add mace, bay or lemon.
- The eggsThe recipe asks only for a layer of hard-boiled eggs. If you lay peeled halves or slices cut side down in the bottom of the mould before the meat goes in, they will appear at the top when the loaf is turned out.
- "A cold place" means the refrigeratorChill uncovered until the surface sets, then cover and keep at 40F or below; allow 6 hours, better overnight. Cool the loaf promptly rather than leaving it on a counter, and eat it within three days. Unmould by dipping the pan briefly in warm water and inverting onto a plate.
Jellied veal belongs to a large family of cold pressed meats — brawn, headcheese, souse, sylta in Sweden, studenets in Russia — that existed because a long-simmered joint yields a broth stiff enough to set on its own in a cool larder. In nineteenth-century North American kitchens it was a thrifty way to use cheap gelatinous cuts and to have something ready for a cold Sunday supper or a picnic basket, sliced thin and eaten with vinegar or mustard. Veal was widely available in this period in a way it is not now, and cookbooks of the 1870s and 80s carry such loaves under names like veal cake, veal jelly and pressed veal. The two-line, quantity-free style and the initials in place of a name have been taken to suggest The Home Cook Book, though style and initials alone are inference rather than evidence; the book appeared in more than one edition, the Chicago one sold in aid of a Chicago charity and the Toronto one in support of the Hospital for Sick Children.