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Veal En Thon
Have a three-pound piece sawn from a round of tender, white leg of veal, remove the bone from the middle, make a few incisions all around the skin, then neatly flatten with a cleaver. Cut six anchovies in oil lengthwise, then with the aid of a larding needle insert the anchovies on top of the veal, then rub the under part with a teaspoon anchovy essence. Season all around with a teaspoon salt and a half teaspoon pepper, place the veal in a basin, pour over half gill vinegar and half gill claret and let infuse for three hours. Lift up the veal, wipe it with a cloth, sprinkle all over with a little flour. Heat two tablespoons good oil in a sautoir, add the veal and gently cook it on the range for twelve minutes on each side. Remove it, dress on a hot dish, take oil out of the pan, then pour in the veal marinade, boil for three minutes, pour it over the veal and serve.
A pan-roasted veal joint studded with anchovy and finished with its own wine-and-vinegar marinade. A few of the measures and vessels need translating, and the cooking time as written will not carry a three-pound piece to the centre.
- GillA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons). The marinade is therefore 1/4 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup claret — not a braising liquid but a coating one.
- ClaretNineteenth-century shorthand for dry red Bordeaux. Any dry, medium-bodied red works; nothing oaky or sweet.
- SautoirA straight-sided sauté pan, not a sloped skillet. Use a heavy pan just large enough to hold the veal, with a lid available.
- Anchovy essenceA bottled anchovy extract sold in the period, roughly a thin anchovy paste. A teaspoon of modern anchovy paste, or two fillets mashed with a little of their oil, gives the same effect.
- The cutA three-pound piece sawn from the round of the leg is what a butcher now sells as boneless veal top round or rump roast. "Remove the bone from the middle" means it arrives bone-in; ask for it boned and tied.
- Larding needleThe anchovies are threaded through the meat, not laid on it. Lacking a larding needle, cut deep slits with a thin boning knife and push a fillet into each with the handle of a spoon.
- TimingTwelve minutes a side browns a three-pound roast; it does not cook it. Sear as directed, then cover and finish over low heat or in a 325F oven until the centre reads 145F, roughly 45 minutes to an hour, and rest it 10 minutes before carving.
- The marinade sauceThis liquid has held raw veal, so the three-minute boil is not optional and is not merely for reduction. Bring it to a full rolling boil in the pan, scraping up the browned bits, before it goes over the meat.
- SaltA teaspoon of salt plus six anchovies and anchovy essence is already assertive. Salt the meat lightly and taste the sauce before adding more.
- YieldSix to eight servings, carved in thin slices across the grain.
The name is the giveaway: en thon, "in the manner of tuna." The dish belongs to the family of Piedmontese vitello tonnato and French veau au thon, in which pale veal is seasoned with anchovy and, in the fuller versions, dressed with a sauce of tuna, capers and oil so that it eats like preserved fish. Here anchovy stands in for tuna, a cheaper substitution, though which approach came first is not settled. This version is a hot, pan-cooked one, which is unusual the Italian dish is generally served cold and sliced thin but it keeps the essential logic. Its place in a section called "The World's Kitchen" reflects the ambition of the big American compendia of the early 1900s, which gathered continental restaurant cooking under national headings for households that would never see the restaurants themselves.