Fricandeau

Fricandeau is a classic French braised veal dish whose name goes back to the sixteenth century. Thick slices are cut with the grain from the noix de veau, a lean cut broadly equal to silverside in English butchery or bottom round in American, and beaten to loosen the fibres. The cook then studs each slice with strips of fatty bacon using a larding needle, seals it lightly in butter without browning, and braises it gently with onions and carrots in white wine or veal stock until the liquid reduces to a syrupy glaze, finishing the cooking in the oven. Each slice is served whole and is meant to be so tender that a spoon can cut it. Sorrel was once the usual accompaniment. The dish appears in the writing of Dumas, Escoffier and Madame Saint-Ange, the word is first recorded in English in 1706, and the dish was taken up in Austria, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland.