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Novelty Veal Rolls
Novelty veal rolls are always very popular as an entree or lunch dish. Take a pound and a half of veal cutlet and cut it into thin slices. Flatten each with a cutlet bat; season with salt and pepper, finely chopped lemon, and parsley. Have a small piece of streaky bacon for each veal cutlet and roll up and tie each with twine. Heat two ounces of butter in a frying pan, lay in the rolls and fry a golden color. Take out and place on a plate; add three dessertspoonfuls of flour to the butter, fry a golden color, moisten with three tablespoonfuls of white wine (if used) and a gill of veal stock, more chopped parsley and lemon. Boil up, skim carefully, lay in the meat rolls, cover all with buttered paper and simmer gently for twenty-one minutes. Take off the string from each roll and serve.
A straightforward braised roulade that needs only a few translations. The main thing is to pound the veal thin enough that twenty-odd minutes of simmering is genuinely sufficient.
- Pound thin, then judge by feelSlices should be about 1/8 inch thick before rolling, or the twenty-one minute simmer will leave the centre tough rather than tender. If your cutlets are thicker, expect 35-45 minutes at a bare simmer and top up the sauce with stock.
- Cutlet batA flat meat mallet or the base of a small heavy pan. Work between two sheets of plastic to avoid tearing the fibres.
- A gill4 fl oz (half a cup) in American measure; an imperial gill is 5 fl oz, so err toward the smaller amount and add more stock as needed. Three dessertspoonfuls of flour is about 2 tablespoons, which against a gill of stock plus the wine gives a moderately thick sauce; loosen with extra stock if it tightens too much.
- "Finely chopped lemon"Almost certainly the rind: grated or very finely minced zest rather than flesh or pith. Pith turns bitter over a long simmer.
- Streaky baconOrdinary American sliced bacon. Buy it unsmoked or lightly smoked if you can, since heavy smoke will dominate veal, and use one slice per roll.
- Buttered paperA cartouche: a round of parchment cut to the pan's diameter, buttered on one side and laid directly on the meat. It keeps the exposed tops moist while allowing some reduction, which a tight lid does not.
- TyingButcher's twine, or a toothpick through each roll if you prefer. Sear seam-side down first so the roll sets closed.
- YieldA pound and a half makes six to eight rolls, enough for four as a light main course with rice or noodles to catch the sauce.
Veal rolls of this kind are the English kitchen's counterpart to the Italian involtini and the German Rouladen, and the flour-thickened pan gravy finished with lemon and parsley belongs to the Anglo-French idiom of the late-Victorian and Edwardian cookery books. Veal was a natural carrier for the treatment, being mild and thin enough to roll. The parenthetical "(if used)" beside the white wine simply marks the wine as optional.