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Cutlets of Beef, Velours
Finely chop two and a half pounds tender raw beef, place in a bowl with three tablespoons finely crushed soda crackers, a gill cream, raw egg, ounce fresh butter, teaspoon salt, half teaspoon pepper, saltspoon grated nutmeg, one finely chopped onion (previously browned five minutes in a very little melted butter) and sharply mix until well amalgamated. Divide preparation into twelve equal pieces, giving then cutlet forms, lightly dip in beaten egg, then roll in cracker dust.
Heat thoroughly two tablespoons good lard in a sautoire, place cutlets in one beside another and gently cook for eight minutes on each side, remove, pour a gill tomato sauce on a hot dish, dress cutlets over and serve.
A ground-beef cutlet enriched with cream and butter, breaded and pan-fried. The measurements are the loose professional shorthand of a chef's book, so a few need pinning down.
- A gillHalf a cup, 4 fl oz. The recipe uses two of them: one of cream in the meat, one of tomato sauce under the cutlets.
- SaltspoonA quarter teaspoon. Here it applies to the nutmeg, which should be barely detectable.
- "Raw egg"One whole egg, beaten, into the meat mixture. A second beaten egg is needed for the dipping, and the original does not say so.
- Chop, do not grind fineHand-chopped beef, or a coarse grind, suits the recipe's 'finely chop'. Fine supermarket mince plus the cream and cracker will turn pasty if you overwork it; mix only until amalgamated.
- Cracker dustSoda crackers crushed to crumbs, used twice: three tablespoons in the meat as a binder, and a plateful more for the coating. Saltines are the closest modern equivalent; unsalted crackers or panko both work, but adjust the added salt if using salted ones.
- SautoireA straight-sided sauté pan wide enough to hold twelve cutlets without touching. Use two pans rather than crowding one; steam ruins the crumb crust.
- The cooking timeEight minutes a side over gentle heat; dividing 2.5 lb into twelve gives cutlets of a little over three ounces each. Cook to 160F internal for ground beef, and drop the heat if the crumbs are colouring before that.
- FatLard fries cleanest at this temperature and is still sold; clarified butter or a neutral oil substitutes without complaint. Plain butter will burn over sixteen minutes.
- Sauce and yieldHalf a cup of tomato sauce for twelve cutlets is a bare film on the platter, which is the intent — it is a base, not a smothering. Twelve cutlets serve six generously.
Velours is simply French for velvet, a name that suits the preparation here: the cream, butter and egg worked into chopped beef until the mixture loses all graininess. The recipe is often attributed to Alexander Filippini, who spent his career in the Delmonico's orbit in New York, which would explain both the kitchen French and the assumption that the reader owns a sautoire and knows what cracker dust is. Shaping ground meat into cutlet form has parallels elsewhere a</ and, in plainer American dress, Salisbury steak. The crushed soda cracker is the American note in an otherwise continental formula he United States what soaked bread or panade did in France.</p>