Breaded Veal Cutlets And French Fried Potatoes

Breaded Veal Cutlets

Use 1/2-inch thick slices of veal cut from the leg. Wipe meat. Cover with boiling water, add bay leaf, peppercorns, salt and onion. Cook until meat is tender. Remove slices of meat. Remove skin and bone and cut into pieces for serving. Small pieces may be fastened together with a toothpick.

Put a heap of fine crumbs on a board or large plate. (Use for crumbing dried bread crumbs which have been rolled and sifted, or stale bread crumbs forced through a colander). Break an egg, add 2 tablespoons water, beat slightly. Dip cutlet, seasoned with salt and pepper, in the crumbs, dip in egg, and then in crumbs again. Fry in smoking hot fat until a light brown and drain on soft paper.

Serve with Tomato or Bechamel Sauce.

BECHAMEL SAUCE:

3/4 Cup White Stock (water in which veal has been cooked). 3/4 Cup Milk. 2 Tablespoons Flour. 2 Tablespoons Cold Water. 1 Tablespoon Butter. Salt and Pepper. Scald the milk, thicken it with the flour and water mixed to a smooth paste and thinned out enough to pour easily. Cook until thickened, add the stock, salt, pepper and butter; stir, taste, and add more seasoning, if necessary.

Questions

1. What is meant by frying?

2. What kind or kinds of fat may be used for frying?

3. What is meant by "trying out" fat?

4. What is meant by clarifying fat?

5. How hot should the fat be for frying purposes?

6. Why should fried food be drained on soft paper after it is taken out of the fat?

7. How would you test the fat for cooked mixtures?

8. How would you test the fat for uncooked mixtures?

9. Why do eggs play an important part in fried mixtures?

10. Name 3 foods rich in fat.

11. In what state is fat most easily digested?

12. What does heat do to fat?

13. When would you add butter to soups and sauces? Why?

14. What is the chief office of fats in the body?

Suggestions For Home Application

Frying is not a method of cooking to be recommended. Many people are very fond of the brown crust or surface that is the result of frying. As previously stated, it is the part of the food that comes in contact with the browned fat that is rendered difficult of digestion.

We learned that albumen coagulates at a low temperature and when a mixture is covered with egg and then fried the heat of the fat coagulates the albumen, forming a seal protecting the inside of the food from coming in contact with the fat. This leaves the outside layer only of the food difficult of digestion, which is only a small proportion of the entire mixture.

In frying food, these 3 things should be remembered.

Select mixtures rich in eggs or cover mixture with eggs.

Fat soaks fat, so never fry a mixture which is rich in fat.

A person who is engaged in outdoor work or one who exercises considerably can take care of fried food better than one leading a sedentary life.

Fats - Heat And Energy Storers

USE OF FATS IN FRYING (Continued.)

Croquettes are usually made from leftover materials. They may be made from one kind of material alone or in combination. When meat or fish is used, it is finely chopped, and seasoned to taste. Left-over vegetables such as peas, may be mixed with the meat.

School Recipe.

VEAL CROQUETTES:

1/4 Cup Chopped Cooked Veal. 1/8 Teaspoon Salt. 2 Tablespoons Thick Sauce

(level). 1/8 Beaten Egg. 1 Piece Dry Bread or 2 Tablespoons Rolled Crumbs.

POTATO CROQUETTES:

1/4 Cup Riced Potatoes.

Few Grains Celery Salt. 1/8 Teaspoon Chopped Parsley. 1/2 Teaspoon Butter. 1/8 Beaten Egg. 1 Piece Dry Bread or 2 Tablespoons Rolled Crumbs.

Veal And Potato Croquettes

In the last lesson you prepared meat dipped in egg and crumbs to exclude the fat when it was fried.

In this lesson you will prepare left-over meat by grinding it and binding it with a thick sauce, then dipping it in egg and crumbs before frying. Mashed potatoes, rice and cereals and cheese hold together without the sauce, but in both cases the croquette needs the coating of egg to keep the fat from soaking into the food.

FATS - Continued.

Digestion Of Fats

Fat is acted upon by the steapsin of the pancreatic juice and the bile in the smaller intestines, where it is divided into such tiny globules that they can be readily absorbed by the cell walls.

Why Fried Food And Pastry Are Hard To Digest

Fat is not acted upon by the saliva in the mouth, nor the gastric juices in the stomach; so when particles of food which should be acted upon by these fluids are entirely coated with grease, they cannot be reached and therefore enter the smaller intestines undigested. Here the fat is removed from thorn by the action of the pancreatic juice, which does its best to digest all; but as it was not intended to do the work, much of the food is passed on undigested. In pastry there is also another reason, namely that so little water is added to the fat coated starch grannies that they cannot swell and burst sufficiently. Starch granules must absorb water, swell and burst before they can be digested.

Remember it is the part of the food that comes in contact with the hot fat that is rendered difficult of digestion.