VEAL ROLLS (Cold Meat Cookery).
902. INGREDIENTS.—The remains of a cold fillet of veal, egg and bread crumbs, a few slices of fat bacon, forcemeat No. 417.
Mode.—Cut a few slices from a cold fillet of veal 1/2 inch thick; rub them over with egg; lay a thin slice of fat bacon over each piece of veal; brush these with the egg, and over this spread the forcemeat thinly; roll up each piece tightly, egg and bread crumb them, and fry them a rich brown. Serve with mushroom sauce or brown gravy.
Time.—10 to 15 minutes to fry the rolls.
Seasonable from March to October.
SHOULDER OF VEAL, Stuffed and Stewed.
903. INGREDIENTS.—A shoulder of veal, a few slices of ham or bacon, forcemeat No. 417, 3 carrots, 2 onions, salt and pepper to taste, a faggot of savoury herbs, 3 blades of pounded mace, water, thickening of butter and flour.
Mode.—Bone the joint by carefully detaching the meat from the blade-bone on one side, and then on the other, being particular not to pierce the skin; then cut the bone from the knuckle, and take it out. Fill the cavity whence the bone was taken with a forcemeat made by recipe No. 417. Roll and bind the veal up tightly; put it into a stew-pan with the carrots, onions, seasoning, herbs, and mace; pour in just sufficient water to cover it, and let it stew very gently for about 5 hours. Before taking it up, try if it is properly done by thrusting a larding-needle in it: if it penetrates easily, it is sufficiently cooked. Strain and skim the gravy, thicken with butter and flour, give one boil, and pour it round the meat. A few young carrots may be boiled and placed round the dish as a garnish, and, when in season, green peas should always be served with this dish.
Time.—5 hours. Average cost, 7d. per lb.
Sufficient for 8 or 9 persons. Seasonable from March to October.
THE FATTENING OF CALVES.—The fattening of calves for the market is an important business in Lanarkshire or Clydesdale, and numbers of newly-dropped calves are regularly carried there from the farmers of the adjacent districts, in order to be prepared for the butcher. The mode of feeding them is very simple; milk is the chief article of their diet, and of this the calves require a sufficient supply from first to last. Added to this, they must be kept in a well-aired place, neither too hot nor too cold, and freely supplied with dry litter. It is usual to exclude the light,—at all events to a great degree, and to put within their reach a lump of chalk, which they are very fond of licking. Thus fed, calves, at the end of 8 or 9 weeks, often attain a very large size; viz., 18 to 20 stone, exclusive of the offal. Far heavier weights have occurred, and without any deterioration in the delicacy and richness of the flesh. This mode of feeding upon milk alone at first appears to be very expensive, but it is not so, when all things are taken into consideration; for at the age of 9 or 10 weeks a calf, originally purchased for 8 shillings, will realize nearly the same number of pounds. For 4, or even 6 weeks, the milk of one cow is sufficient,—indeed half that quantity is enough for the first fortnight; but after the 5th or 6th week it will consume the greater portion of the milk of two moderate cows; but then it requires neither oil-cake nor linseed, nor any other food. Usually, however, the calves are not kept beyond the age of 6 weeks, and will then sell for 5 or 6 pounds each: the milk of the cow is then ready for a successor. In this manner a relay of calves may be prepared for the markets from early spring to the end of summer, a plan more advantageous than that of overfeeding one to a useless degree of corpulency.