The best pieces of veal are the loin and the fillet. A variety of dishes can be made with veal cutlets and their different accompaniments. Veal is always better cooked with pork or ham. Professional cooks generally trim and lard their veal cutlets, serving them with tomato-sauce, pease, beans, breakfast bacon, lemon-slices, cucumbers, etc. For a cheap dish, one of the most satisfactory is a knuckle of veal made into a ragout, or pot-pie. Any of the inferior cuts may be made into a blanquette.

A fricandeau of veal is perhaps considered the most distinguished veal dish. I would always advise the trimming of veal cutlets. It gives little trouble, but the appearance is much improved, and the trimmings should be thrown into the stock-pot. Veal should always be thoroughly cooked.

Roast of Veal—the Fillet.

Take out the bone of the joint; make a deep incision between the fillet and the flap; then fill it with stuffing made as follows: Two cupfuls of bread-crumbs, half a cupful of chopped pork, half a lemon-peel grated, a little juice, thyme, summer savory, or any herbs to taste; or it may be filled with a veal stuffing (see page 167). Bind the veal into a round form, fasten it with skewers and twine, sprinkle over pepper and salt, and cover it with buttered paper. Be careful not to put the meat too near the fire at first. Baste well and often. Just before it is done, remove the paper, sprinkle over a little flour, and rub over it a little butter. This will give a frothy appearance to the surface of the meat. When done, put the pan of gravy on the fire; add a little flour, some boiling water, and, when cooked, some lemon-juice. Strain it, remove the grease, and pour it around the roast. Fry some pieces of ham cut in diamond shape; place these in a circle around the roast, each piece alternated with a slice of lemon.

A Fricandeau of Veal.

What is called a fricandeau of veal is simply a cushion of veal trimmed into shape, larded, and braised. Cut a thick slice (three or four pounds) from a fillet of veal, trim it around as in cut for “blind hare” (see page 150), and lard it on top. Put some pieces of pork into a braising-kettle, or saucepan, if you have no braising-kettle; also slices of carrot, an onion with cloves stuck in, a stick of celery, and some parsley. Put in the meat, sprinkle over pepper and salt, and cover it with well-buttered paper. Now fill the pan with boiling stock, or water enough to just cover the meat. Put on a tight lid. If it is a braising-pan, set it upon the fire, with live coals on top. If a common saucepan, cover it, and put it into a hot oven.

It will take about two hours, or two hours and a half, to cook it. A professional cook would boil down the stock in which the fricandeau was cooked until reduced to a glaze, then with a brush would glaze all the top of the meat, placing it in the oven a moment to dry. However, it tastes as well without this extra trouble.

The best sauce for a fricandeau is a tomato-sauce. It is as often garnished with green pease, spinach, or sorrel; or a little wine (Madeira, port, or sherry) and roux (see page 51) may be added to the braising-stock for a gravy. The gravy should be strained, of course.

Veal Cutlets, Broiled.

The rib cutlets should always be neatly trimmed, the bone scraped at the end, so that it will look smooth and white. Broil them on a moderate fire, basting them occasionally with butter, and turning them often. Dish them in a circle with tomato-sauce.

Veal Cutlets, SautÉd and Fried.

These are cutlets cut from the round, although any veal cutlets may be cooked in the same way. Cut them into equal-sized pieces, beat them a little with a knife to get them into shape; season, egg, and bread-crumb them. Now, fry in a sautÉ pan, or rather sautÉ some thin slices of ham in a little hot lard, and when done take them out on a hot dish; fry slowly the cutlets in the same fat, and when done pour out some of the fat, if there is more than a tea-spoonful; add a little flour, then a little hot water, and, when cooked a few moments, season it well with lemon-juice, adding pepper and salt to taste; then strain it. Serve the cutlets in the centre of a dish, with the gravy poured over; and place alternate slices of the ham and lemon in a circle around them.

They are also very good sautÉd in a little lard, and served with a cream gravy poured over; or they are nice egged (with a little chopped parsley and onion mixed with the egg), and bread-crumbed, and fried in hot lard.

Veal Cutlets, Braised.

Professional cooks usually braise veal cutlets. They lard them (an easy matter) all on the same side, the flavor of pork particularly well suiting veal. To proceed then: Mince some onions and carrots; put them in the bottom of a stew-pan; put the cutlets on this layer; cover well with stock (add wine if you choose), and let them cook until thoroughly done.

If you wish to be particular, boil down the stock and glaze them; or make a gravy of the stock with flour, roux, pepper and salt, and strain it; or serve them with tomato-sauce; or make a little round hill of mashed potatoes, and put the cutlets around; or serve with them, instead, beans, pease, or flowerets of cauliflowers.

Mutton or Veal Chops (en papillote).

Trim the chops; broil them in the usual way over the coals, and when done place each one in a paper (well buttered) cut in the form of Fig. 1; pour over each chop a sauce made as

follows: For three cutlets thicken a cupful of strong broth with equal quantities of either cold cooked chicken, lamb, or veal, and mushrooms (the mushrooms are a great improvement to the dish, yet they may be omitted if more convenient) with a quarter proportion of cold boiled ham added, and also one or two sprigs of parsley, all chopped very fine. Pour this hot over the hot cutlets; place a very thin slice of fat salt pork over each cutlet;[B] fasten the paper as in Fig. 2, and place them in a hot oven for about ten minutes. Serve immediately while the chops are steaming hot.

Blanquette of Veal (French Cook).

Cut any kind of veal (say two pounds) into pieces; put it into boiling water, with a little bulb of garlic or slice of onion, and when done throw the meat from the boiling water into cold water, to whiten it. This is the rule, but I usually dispense with it. Make a drawn butter sauce, i. e., put butter the size of an egg into a saucepan, and when it bubbles mix in a table-spoonful of flour, which cook a minute, without letting it color; add then two cupfuls of boiling water and a little nutmeg. When the veal is done, drain it from the water, and let it simmer several minutes in the sauce, adding at the same time a sprig of parsley chopped fine. When just ready to serve, place the pieces of meat on a hot platter; stir the yolks of three eggs into the sauce without allowing them to boil; also several drops, or a seasoning, of lemon-juice. Pour the sauce over the veal, and serve.

Blind Hare (Mrs. Charles Parsons).

Ingredients: Three pounds of minced veal, three pounds of minced beef, eight eggs well beaten, three stale rolls, or the same amount of bread-crumbs, pepper, salt, two grated nutmegs, a heaping table-spoonful of ground cinnamon. Mix all well together. Form it into an oval-shaped loaf, smooth it, and sprinkle bread or cracker crumbs over the top. Bake it in a moderate oven about three hours. It is to be sliced when cold.

Bewitched Veal (Mrs. Judge Embry).

Ingredients: Three pounds of lean veal, half a pound of fat salt pork, one nutmeg grated, one small onion, butter the size of an egg, a little red pepper, and salt.

Chop all very fine, and mix them together, with three eggs well beaten, and a tea-cupful of milk; form it into a small loaf, pressing it very firmly; cover it with fine bread-crumbs; bake two hours and a half. It is intended to be eaten cold, yet is very good hot. The slices may be served in a circle around salad.

Plain Veal Stew or Pot-pie.

Cut the meat from a knuckle of veal into pieces not too small; put them into a pot with some small pieces of salt pork, and plenty of pepper and salt; pour over enough hot water to cover it well, and let it boil until the meat is thoroughly done; then, while the water is still boiling, drop in (by the spoonful) a batter made with the following ingredients: Two eggs well beaten, two and a half or three cupfuls of buttermilk, one even tea-spoonful of soda, and flour enough to make a thick batter. Cover the pot, and as soon as the batter is well cooked, serve it. By standing, it becomes heavy.

To Cook Liver (Melanie Lourant), No. 1.

Put a little lard into a saucepan, and when hot throw in half an onion minced fine, one or two sprigs of parsley, chopped, and the slices of calf’s liver. Turn the liver several times, allowing it to cook well and imbibe the taste of the onion and parsley. When cooked, place it at the side of the fire. In another saucepan make a sauce as follows: Put in a piece of butter size of a large hickory-nut, and when it bubbles sprinkle in a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; stir it until it assumes a fine brown color, then pour in a cupful of boiling water, stirring it well with the egg-whisk; add pepper, salt, a table-spoonful of vinegar, and a heaping table-spoonful of capers. The sauce is very nice without the capers, but very much improved with them. Drain out the slices of liver, which put into the sauce, and let them remain at the side of the fire until ready to serve. Chopped pickle may be substituted for the capers, and stock may be used instead of the boiling water.

To Cook Liver (No. 2).

Fry in a sautÉ pan some thin slices of breakfast bacon, and when done put them on a hot dish; fry then thin slices of liver in the same fat, which have previously been thrown into boiling water for only a moment, and then been sprinkled with flour. When well done on both sides, serve them and the bacon on the same dish, and garnish them with slices of lemon.

Calf’s Brains.

Before cooking, remove the fibrous membranes around them. Throw them into a pint of cold water, in which are mixed half a tea-spoonful of salt and one tea-spoonful of vinegar; boil them three minutes, then plunge them into cold water. When cold and about to be served, cut them into scollops; and when seasoned with pepper and salt, egged, and bread-crumbed, sautÉ them in a little hot butter. Serve with tomato-sauce. Or they may be served with spighetti (a small macaroni) cooked with tomato-sauce (see page 210), and placed around them, when they are called brains À la Milanaise.