XIV VEAL

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Margaret Johnes Mitchell

Veal varies greatly with the age of the calf from which it is taken. It should be pink, with firm, white fat. Pale, flabby veal comes from calves which have been killed too young, or bled before death, and is likely to be tasteless and stringy when cooked. The older veal grows, the more like beef it appears. The cuts are larger and the colour is darker and more like the red of beef. Veal can be purchased the year round, but the best season for it is spring and summer. Almost all parts of the calf are tender, but the cheaper cuts correspond with the cheaper cuts of beef, except the cutlets or steaks, which are taken from the same part of the animal as the round of beef, and command a good price. Veal, like other white meats, should be thoroughly cooked. Its delicacy commends it for many purposes, but it often requires the addition of pork, or high seasoning, to give it flavour.

Figure No. 9.
Diagram of the cuts of veal.

TABLE SHOWING THE WAYS IN WHICH THE VARIOUS CUTS OF VEAL MAY BE COOKED IN THE HAY-BOX OR COOKER.

  • 1. Head, Jelly, soups, and broths, calf’s head À la terrapin.
  • 2. Neck, Stews, soup, veal pie.
  • 3. Chuck, Veal loaf, stews, soup, veal pie.
  • 4. Shoulder, Braised, stuffed and braised.
  • 5. Shanks, Soups.
  • 6. Ribs, Braised or breaded as veal cutlets.
  • 7. Breast, Soups, stews, veal loaf.
  • 8. Loin, Braised or breaded as veal cutlets.
  • 9. Flank, Soups or stews.
  • 10. Leg, Breaded cutlets or plain cutlets.

OTHER PARTS OF THE CALF, USED FOR FOOD, WHICH MAY BE COOKED IN THE HAY-BOX OR COOKER.

  • Brains, Stewed and creamed.
  • Heart, Braised, plain or stuffed.
  • Liver, Braised, or stewed.
  • Tongues, Boiled.
  • Sweetbreads, Stewed or creamed.
  • Kidneys, Stewed or creamed.

Breaded Veal Cutlets

  • 2 lbs. veal cutlets
  • Fine, dry breadcrumbs
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1 egg
  • 1 pt. water or stock
  • 1/2 cup butter or drippings
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
  • 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce

Wipe the cutlets with a clean, wet cloth. Cut them into pieces suitable for serving, and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Dip them into sifted crumbs, then into the egg, which has been beaten slightly and mixed with one tablespoonful of water. Dip the cutlets again into the crumbs and fry them until they are a rich brown, in one-half the butter or drippings. Put them into a small cooker-pail or pan. Make Brown Sauce, using the remaining ingredients. Pour the sauce over the cutlets and, when boiling, stand the pail in a large cooker-pail of boiling water. Put it into a cooker for from two to four hours, depending upon the age and toughness of the veal. Reheat them before serving.

Serves six or eight persons.

Plain Veal Cutlets

Wipe the cutlets with a wet cloth, trim off any tough membranes, and cut them into pieces suitable for serving. Brown them in a very hot frying-pan with butter or rendered fat, being careful not to let them scorch. Sprinkle them well with salt and pepper and put them into a small cooker-pail or pan. Pour a little boiling water into the frying-pan and, when all the brown juice which has hardened on the pan has been dissolved, pour this over the cutlets. Add enough boiling water to barely cover them and, when boiling, stand the pail or pan in a large cooker-pail of boiling water. Put it into the cooker for from two to four hours, depending upon the age and toughness of the veal. Reheat them before serving, if necessary.

Veal Loaf

  • 2 cups minced veal
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup melted butter
  • 1 cup soft bread crumbs
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 11/2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
  • 2 tablespoons chopped onion
  • 1/4 inch slice fat salt pork
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground sage

Wipe meat from the cheaper cuts of veal, remove the fat and toughest membranes, and put it through a fine food-chopper. Mix the seasonings with the crumbs, add the melted butter, mix these with the veal, add the pork and, lastly, the eggs. Put the mixture in a well-buttered one-quart brown bread mould or water-tight can. Spread it level but do not pack it in the mould. Stand it in a large cooker-pail with enough boiling water to come at least two-thirds of the way up the mould. Boil it for twenty minutes and put it into the cooker for four hours. Serve it either hot or cold.

Serves eight or ten persons.

Sweetbreads

Wash and soak the sweetbreads in cold water for one hour. Plunge them into boiling salted water (one teaspoonful of salt for each quart of water). Boil them two minutes and put them into the cooker for two hours. Plunge them into cold water, remove the membrane which covers them, and they are then ready to be broken in pieces for creamed sweetbreads or rolled in crumbs and egg and fried.

Creamed Sweetbreads

Make a white sauce, using part milk and part cream, if desired. To each cupful of sauce add two cupfuls of prepared sweetbreads broken into small pieces, let them come to a boil and serve them at once, or put them into a cooker to keep warm until they are needed.

Calf’s Heart

Calf’s heart may be cooked as beef’s heart, except that it will not require so long to cook. Ten minutes is sufficient to allow for cooking over the flame, and ten hours in the hay-box.

Calf’s Liver

Prepare and cook it in the same manner as beef’s liver, allowing only four hours for it to cook in the hay-box.

Veal Kidney

These are almost as delicate as sweetbreads. They may be cooked for two hours in the same manner as beef kidney, or creamed or fried as sweetbreads.

Calf’s Head À la Terrapin

  • 1 calf’s head
  • Salt
  • Water
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 4 egg yolks
  • Madeira Wine

Carefully clean a calf’s head and put it into a cooker-pail. Cover it with boiling water, add one teaspoonful of salt to each quart of water and let it boil for twenty minutes. Put it into a cooker for nine hours or more. Cool it and cut the face meat into small dice. Make a cupful of sauce using the butter, flour, pepper, one-half teaspoonful of salt and one cupful of the water in which the head was boiled. Add the cream and, when boiling, the raw yolks of two eggs which have been slightly beaten. Stir it constantly for about two minutes until the eggs have cooked. Then add two tablespoonfuls of Madeira wine and the yolks of two hard-cooked eggs cut into quarters.

Serves five or six persons.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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