Sauté de Veau Chasseur

Sauté de Veau Chasseur (veal browned and braised hunter-style) teaches the discipline behind every good sauté: colour the meat deeply before the liquid enters, because the fond on the pot floor becomes the backbone of the sauce. This is the one true thing to know before touching the pan. Crowd the veal and it pales in its own juices; give it room and the finished sauce will taste complete before the parsley falls.

The book's kitchen assumed a saucier with Chasseur Sauce (Escoffier’s Method) (No. 33) ready, a brown stockpot never off the fire, and enough pans to pass meat and sauce down a line. For four servings, good unsalted brown veal stock and a measured portion of the finished referenced sauce do the same work; one heavy casserole, a bowl, and a fine sieve replace the relay of saucepans. There is no salamander work to replace here, and the book's timbale becomes a warmed deep serving bowl, which holds the sauce by the same intent. The extra transfers are brigade scaffolding, so they go. Deep browning, gentle oven cooking, straining, reducing the liquor by one quarter, and the final fifteen minutes in sauce are the dish, so they stay.

The result is generous rather than fussy: tender veal under a glossy brown sauce, its tomato held in check, mushroom and wine coming through at the finish, parsley waking the whole pot. One cook, one stove, one evening. Brown in uncrowded batches, and the Sauté de Veau Chasseur is already more than halfway home.