Fricassée de Veau

Fricassée de veau (veal stiffened in butter and cooked in its own white sauce) teaches control without colour. The one true thing to know before touching the pan is this: the veal must turn firm and opaque in foaming butter without acquiring a golden edge. This is raidir, to stiffen gently, and the word carries the technique. Brown the meat and you haven't ruined supper, but you've left the pale, delicate character of a fricassée behind.

The original formula assumed a saucier on staff, white stock never off the fire, and enough veal for a dining room. Here, a heavy lidded sauté pan holds four portions, while measured pale stock replaces the brigade stockpot. Separate garnish pans and last-minute sauce service are scaffolding, so they go. What remains is the dish itself: one ounce of flour for every pound of veal, the flour cooked with the meat, the mushrooms and onions simmered in that sauce, and the liaison of egg yolks and cream added off the heat. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The finished sauce should be ivory, glossy, and just thick enough to follow the spoon, with tender veal and vegetables that taste of the sauce because they cooked inside it. Keep the butter pale during the raidir. That is the step that decides the fricassée before everything else begins.