Veal

Do not buy veal unless the vein in the shoulder looks blue or bright red. If of any other color, the veal is not fresh. A calf's head should have the eyes full and prominent. If they are dull and sunken, the head is stale. The kidney should be well covered with firm white fat. All the fat must be firm, dry, and white, and the lean fine in the grain, and light colored. If any part is found clammy or discolored, do not buy that veal. The best pieces of the calf are the loin and the fillet. The loin consists of the best and the chump end; the hind knuckle, and the fore knuckle. The inferior pieces are the neck, blade-bone, and breast. The brisket end of a breast of veal is very coarse, hard, and tough; the best end is rather better, having sweet-bread belonging to it.

Veal, like all other meat, should be well washed in cold water before cooking. Being naturally the most tasteless and insipid of all meat, it requires the assistance of certain articles to give it flavor. It is too weak to make rich soup without various additions. But well cooked, it is very nice as roasted loin, fillet, or fried cutlets.

Roast Loin Of Veal

Wash the meat well in cold water, wipe it dry, and rub it slightly with mixed pepper and salt. Make a stuffing of bread soaked in milk, or grated bread-crumbs, cold ham minced, sweet marjoram minced, and the juice and yellow grated rind of a lemon; also, a little fresh butter. Loosen with a sharp knife the skin, and put the stuffing under it, skewering down the flap to keep it in. Put the veal to roast before a strong clear fire, and pour a little water in the bottom of the roaster. Baste it with this till the gravy begins to run. Then baste it with that. Set the spit at first not very close to the fire, but bring it nearer as the roasting proceeds.

Send it to table with its own gravy, well skimmed and slightly thickened with a little flour.

Always choose a fine fresh loin of veal with plenty of fat about the kidney. No meat spoils so soon.

The breast and shoulder are roasted in the same manner as the loin, of which two dishes may be made, the kidney end, and the chump end.

Fillet Of Veal

When a fillet is to be roasted or baked, let it be well washed, and then dried in a clean towel. Take out the bone, fold the flap round, and skewer it to the meat. Make plenty of forcemeat or stuffing, of bread soaked in milk, or grated dry and mixed with plenty of fresh butter, or some of the fat or suet finely minced. Season with pepper, grated nutmeg, powdered mace, fresh lemon peel grated, and sweet marjoram and sweet basil minced fine. The hole that contained the bone must be stuffed full, and also the space between the flap and the side of the meat. This should be secured by three skewers. Dredge the meat all over lightly with flour before you put it down. At first, place the spit at a distance from the fire, which should be strong and clear. Then, as the meat begins to roast, set it nearer, and till the gravy begins to fall, baste it with fresh butter, or lard. Just before it is finished, (it will take about four hours,) dredge it with flour, and baste it well with its own gravy. When the meat is dished, skim the gravy, thicken it with a little flour, and pour it round the veal in the dish, or serve it in a sauce-boat.

A ham is the usual accompaniment to roast veal, whether fillet or loin.