Eat Ethically Top tips for cooking veal

Date Published:

14/05/2008

Controversial and contentious it may be, but veal is back and appearing on high-end menus around the country. 4Food spoke to top chef Nathan Outlaw about dealing with veal from the butchers to the barbie

Where can we buy veal?

At the moment it's mainly small producers and farmers markets. I buy mine from Boccadon Farm, who also sell online and are at four or five farmers markets across Devon and Cornwall. There are similar producers across the country but veal isn't widely available. There's also the misconception that it's expensive.

How much am I looking at paying for a veal steak?

For a t-bone steak you're looking at average of £8. If you went to the supermarket and bought a quality piece of beef sirloin it's going to cost you a similar amount and you won't know where it's come from or how it's been raised.

The escalope doesn't have to be in breadcrumbs; it can be served plain and grilled on the barbecue. It's very similar to meat from a cow but is much more tender.

How long does veal take to cook?

It depends how you're cooking it. As veal is very tender it will take a little bit less time to cook than beef. I even serve it raw in a veal tongue carpaccio with anchovy mayonnaise, which tastes a bit like a tender corned beef.

Can you recommend any good sauce accompaniments?

Anchovy mayonnaise goes really well with veal and is a traditional accompaniment. We serve our veal steaks with a shallot and mustard sauce. It lends itself to lighter flavours than beef.

What about wine. What should I drink with my veal?

In the restaurant at the moment we're pairing it with a Gavi di Gavi Italian dry white.

Finally to ethics. Isn't eating calves a bit cruel?

Veal is an interesting topic at the moment. The veal sold in England isn't like the white veal that is sold on the continent where the animals are kept in crates or blind veal where the animals are killed before they've seen daylight.

Where I buy it from all the calves are six months old which is a longer life than any pigs, chickens or lambs. These calves are ethically reared.

But for many farmers in Britain at the moment, when they get new calves it's too expensive to keep them so they'll pack them on to a lorry and sell them to the Dutch market, where they will raise them for white veal. The veal farmer I buy them off feels good if he can rescue a few of these calves before it comes to that.

Where do you sit on the veal divide? Is veal just another meat or do you think it's particularly cruel? Share your views in the 4Food forum.