Home › Sauces and Meats › Veal with Gravy
Veal with Gravy
(Vitella in guazzetto) First take about one pound of veal and tie it well. Then cover the bottom of the saucepan with some thin slices of corned beef and a piece of butter. Over this place half a lemon cut in four thin slices from which the skin and the seeds must be removed. Over all this put the veal which must be well browned on all sides, but care must be taken not to burn it on account of the small quantity of liquid. Afterward, remove the superfluous fat and pour over a cup of hot milk, that has boiled. Cover the saucepan and complete the cooking. Before serving rub the gravy through a sieve. 82
A one-pound piece of veal braised in milk over a bed of cured pork and lemon — the whole point is a slow, gentle braise that lets the milk break down into a nutty, faintly caramelized gravy. Low heat is the hinge; the pan holds almost no liquid at the start and will scorch if pushed.
- "Corned beef" is a mistranslation"Corned beef" is very likely a mistranslation -- the Italian source almost certainly called for a salt-cured pork such as carnesecca — pancetta, or failing that a couple of slices of unsmoked bacon or prosciutto. Corned beef will not render the fat the dish depends on.
- The cut and the tyingUse a solid piece of veal shoulder, boned breast or a rolled slice about 1 lb. Tie it firmly with butcher's twine at 1-inch intervals so it holds shape through the braise and slices cleanly.
- Heat levelBrown over medium heat, then drop to the lowest simmer once the milk goes in. With this little liquid, anything higher scorches the pork and the milk solids on the bottom of the pan.
- The lemonFour thin slices from half a lemon, peel and seeds removed — meaning the flesh only. The pith and rind would turn bitter over an hour of cooking.
- "A cup of hot milk, that has boiled"Scalding the milk before adding it keeps it from seizing when it hits the hot pan. Whole milk only; skim and low-fat break more readily and give a thin gravy.
- Expect the milk to curdleIt will separate into soft golden granules as it reduces. That is correct for a milk braise, and it is why the recipe ends with sieving — press the solids through a fine strainer and the gravy comes back together.
- "Complete the cooking"Covered, at a bare simmer, roughly 1 to 1 1/2 hours for a 1 lb tied piece, until a knife meets no resistance. Add a spoonful of hot water or milk if the pan runs dry before the meat is tender.
- YieldTwo to three servings. Rest the meat five minutes before untying and slicing, and spoon the sieved gravy over at the table.
Vitella in guazzetto — guazzetto from guazzo, a puddle or wash, meaning meat cooked in a little liquid rather than roasted dry — belongs to a family of Italian braises in which milk does the work of both cooking medium and sauce. Maria Gentile's The Italian Cook Book (1919) was aimed at American households and drew heavily on the Italian domestic tradition codified by Pellegrino Artusi in La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (1891), where several veal dishes are finished this way. The recipe renders carnesecca as "corned beef," an English-language rendering made for a market that had no word for cured Italian pork belly. Milk-braised veal remains an Italian staple, and the recipe produces a sieved, separated gravy.