To ragoo a breast of veal is a traditional British recipe, based on Hannah Glasse's recipe of 1747, for a classic dish of boiled breast of veal and sweetbreads served in a stock made from the veal bones flavoured with ketchup, herbs, spices wine and mushrooms. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: To ragoo a breast of veal.
(click this button to prevent the screen from sleeping so Cook Mode is 'ON')
To ragoo a breaſt of veal.
TAKE your breaſt of veal, put it into a large ſtew-pan, put in a bundle of ſweet-herbs, an onion, ſome black and white pepper, a blade or two of mace, two or three cloves, a very little piece of lemon peel, and juſt cover it with water : when it is tender, take it up, bone it, put in the bones, boil it up till the gravy is very good, then ſtrain it off, and if you have a little rich beef gravy add a quarter of a pint, put in half an ounce of truffles and morels, a spoonful or two of catchup, two or three ſpoonfuls of white wine, and let them all boil together : in the mean time flour the veal, and fry it in butter till it is of a fine brown, then drain out all the butter and pour the gravy you are boiling to the veal, with a few muſhrooms : boil all together till the ſauce is rich and thick, and cut the ſweetbread into four. A few force-meat balls is proper in it. Lay the veal in the diſh, and pour the ſauce all over it. Garniſh with lemon.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients
1 breast of veal
1 veal sweetbread, washed and blanched for 5 minutes to remove the blood
1 bunch of sweet herbs, securely tied together
1 onion
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp white peppercorns
2 blades of mace
3 cloves
2 strips of thinly-pared lemon zest
150ml rich beef gravy
15g wild mushrooms, chopped
2 tbsp ketchup
3 tbsp white wine
flour for dusting
50g butter
6 button mushrooms, halved
6 forcemeat balls, fried
lemon slices, to garnish
Method:
Place the breast of veal and the sweetbread in a large pan. Add the herbs, onion, peppercorns, mace, cloves and lemon zest. Pour in just enough water to cover all the ingredients then bring to a simmer. Cover the pan and continue simmering for about 80 minutes, or until the breast of veal and the sweetbreads are tender.
Remove the breast of veal and the sweetbreads from the pan and set the sweetbreads aside. Bone the breast of veal and set the meat aside. Return the bones to the pan, then bring the mixture to a boil and continue boiling for about 60 minutes, or until the stock has reduced and it has a good flavour.
Strain the stock into a clean pan and add the rich beef gravy, wild mushrooms, ketchup and white wine. Bring to a boil and cook to reduce the sauce.
In the meantime, melt the butter in a pan then flour the breast of veal on both sides. Add to the hot butter and fry until golden brown all over. Pour out any excess butter then add the stock to the pan with the mushrooms. Bring to a boil and continue cooking until the sauce has reduced and is thick in consistency. Cut the sweetbread in four pieces and add to the pan. Allow to just heat through.
Arrange the veal in the centre of a serving dish and arrange the sweetbread pieces and forcemeat balls around it. Pour over the sauce, garnish with lemon slices and serve.
