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Veal Chops, with Ham
Nicely trim and flatten six small veal chops. Season all around with a teaspoon salt, half teaspoon pepper and lightly roll in a tablespoon oil. Arrange on a broiler and broil for five minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a hot dish with six thin slices broiled ham place the chops on top of the ham, decorate with a little watercress and serve.
A five-line broiled dish that depends almost entirely on the thickness of the meat. Get that right and the timing in the original still works.
- "Flatten" means pound thinThe chops need to be about 1/2 inch thick for five minutes a side to cook them through. Lay them between plastic wrap and pound from the centre outward with the flat of a mallet, taking care not to tear the meat away from the bone.
- Broil, not bakeAt the time "broil" meant direct radiant heat, either over coals or under a gas salamander. Use your oven broiler on high with the rack set 3 to 4 inches from the element, and preheat it for a good ten minutes before the chops go in.
- DonenessVeal loin or rib chops are done at 145F with a short rest. Thin pounded chops pass through that window quickly, so check with a thermometer at four minutes a side rather than trusting the clock.
- The hamSix thin slices of ready-to-eat cured ham, broiled only long enough to heat through and colour at the edges, one to two minutes. This is not raw fresh ham, which would need proper roasting.
- Oil and seasoningA tablespoon of oil for six chops is a light coating, not a marinade. Rub it on last, after the salt and pepper, so the seasoning sticks to the meat rather than sliding off in the fat.
- Hot dishThe instruction to "dress on a hot dish" is doing real work here. Thin veal loses heat in under a minute, so warm the serving platter in a low oven while the chops broil.
- WatercressGarnish, though often eaten with the meat as a peppery counterpoint. Dress it with nothing, or the barest drop of lemon.
- YieldSix small chops serves three to six depending on the rest of the meal; in a period dinner of many courses this was one plate among several.
Veal chops laid over broiled ham belong to the grill-room repertoire of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when hotel and club kitchens kept a hot broiler going all service and built plates from a few quickly seared components plus a garnish. The pairing is practical as much as anything: veal is famously lean and mild, and the salt and fat of cured ham season it from underneath while the ham slice keeps the meat off the cooling plate. Filippini's The International Cook Book collects hundreds of such short, assembly-minded entries, written for cooks who already knew how to manage a fire and needed only the combination and the order of operations. Watercress was a common finish on broiled meats of the period, sold in bunches by greengrocers.