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Veal Cutlets, Philadelphia
Neatly flatten six tender veal cutlets. Heat two tablespoons melted lard in a large black frying pan; lay the cutlets in the pan, one beside another, and rapidly fry for two minutes on each side. Remove and keep on a plate. Finely slice three medium white onions and place in an earthen casserole with two tablespoons butter; set on the fire and cook for three minutes, gently mixing, then arrange the cutlets on top of the onions; add two peeled and shredded red tomatoes. Season with one and a half teaspoons salt and three-quarters of a teaspoon white pepper. Place six very thin slices raw ham, one on each cutlet. Cover the pan tightly, place in a brisk oven for thirty-five minutes, remove, uncover, sprinkle a teaspoon chopped chives over all, cover the casserole again and send to the table.
A braise disguised as a cutlet dish: the frying is only for colour, and the real cooking happens under a tight lid. The single thing that matters is the seal — the onions and tomatoes supply all the liquid, so any steam that escapes leaves the veal dry.
- "Brisk oven"Read this as 425F. Because the pot is covered and the contents braise in their own moisture, anything from 400F to 425F works; the heat is driving the closed vessel, not browning anything.
- The casseroleAn "earthen casserole" is a lidded earthenware pot, here set directly on the fire and then moved to the oven. A modern lidded Dutch oven or enamelled cast-iron pot does the same job. If your lid is loose, lay a sheet of parchment or foil under it.
- Cutlets, then and now"Flatten" and the two-minute sear per side point to thin veal scallops rather than bone-in chops; about a quarter inch is a fair reading of that thickness.
- Lard and the black panThe "large black frying pan" is cast iron or heavy carbon steel, chosen because it holds heat when six cutlets go in at once. Lard is worth using for the sear if you have it; clarified butter or a neutral oil behaves the same.
- Raw hamProsciutto, speck or another dry-cured ham sliced paper thin. It is not raw pork — it is cured, and it is cooked through in the covered pot. Cut back the 1½ teaspoons salt if your ham is assertively salty.
- Thirty-five minutesLong for veal this thin by modern habit. The result is fully braised meat in the onion and tomato moisture rather than a quickly seared cutlet; that appears to be what the recipe intends.
- White pepperThree-quarters of a teaspoon is a lot by current taste. Start with half and adjust at the table.
- Yield and servingSix cutlets serve six, or four generously. It arrives covered so the chives stay green; spoon the onion and tomato over each cutlet and serve with buttered noodles, rice or boiled potatoes to take the pan juices.
The book, like other "international" compendiums of the early twentieth century, files dishes by city and nation with a confidence the attributions rarely deserve; "Philadelphia" here most likely signals a style rather than a documented local recipe, in the same way "à la Milanaise" or "Créole" served as menu shorthand in hotel kitchens. What the method actually shows is a French braise — sear, sweat an onion base, cover tightly, finish in the oven — with sliced tomato and cured ham laid over the top. Veal was still relatively cheap and abundant in the era of urban dairying, when bull calves were a by-product of the milk supply, which may be part of why thin cutlets appear so often in books of this kind. The ham blanket follows the same reasoning as larding: veal is lean, and a layer of fatty cured pork bastes it as it renders under the lid.