Escalopes de Veau

Escalopes de Veau à l’Anglaise (thin veal collops in an egg-and-breadcrumb coat) teach the speed of the sauté pan. The one true thing is this: veal beaten thin must meet very hot clarified butter and leave almost immediately. Let it linger and the meat hardens, however handsome the crust.

The grand kitchen around the original kept a saucier on staff, stock never off the fire, and a salamander ready, but this entry calls on none of them. Its own assumptions were a cushion already cleared of sinew, a moistened beater, a breading station waiting, clarified butter ready, and pans moving through service. At home, ask the butcher for four collops, replace the beater with a smooth mallet and lightly dampened parchment, then cook two at a time in one wide skillet. The stream of individual pans becomes two quick batches because crowding would cool the butter and soften the coating. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The exact oval or curve-based triangle is brigade neatness, useful but not sacred. Clearing every thread of connective tissue, beating the veal evenly thin, keeping flour, Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174), and fine crumbs in that order, then cooking quickly in clarified butter are the dish and must stay. Any sauce stays separate because a crisp coat cannot survive a bath. Get the butter properly hot before the first escalope enters. That is the step that decides dinner.