A cutlet or an escalope of veal (allow one or one and a half per person)
Milk, for marinade
Toasted breadcrumbs
Butter

For garnish
Quartered lemons
Parsley

"Where veal is concerned, if you are able to buy it from a Continental butcher, do so, for you will find he has a better idea of cutting up veal for cutlets and escalopes than his British counterpart. Excellent veal can be procured in Soho from the shop of Benoit Bulcke in Old Compton Street, and there are other good Continental butchers to be found in other parts of London and in most large cities. If you are buying veal for *escalopes' you need thin slices of the lean meat cut from the leg or from the fillet, and if you are not the possessor of a 'cutlet bat', remember to ask your butcher to flatten the escalopes for you with his cleaver; this type of rough treatment means a far more tender finished dish, and an escalope, remember, should be tender enough almost to melt in the mouth when eaten. It's as well to be extravagant when cooking veal, using butter for frying, rather than dripping; butter costs a little more, but the flavour is lighter and far more delicious when veal is fried crisp in good butter. Either a cutlet or an escalope of veal may be cooked 'alla Milanese'. In either case allow one or one and a half per person, depending upon the size, and before starting to cook, either flatten the meat yourself with a cutlet bat, or have the butcher flatten it for you. If you want to be truly Milanese, you will allow your meat to marinate in a bath of milk for an hour or so before starting to cook it, but this refinement may be omitted without any real detriment to the finished dish. Remove all fat and grisde. Coat your cutlets or escalopes in beaten egg which has been seasoned with salt and pepper; allow surplus egg to drip off, then dip the meat in fine toasted breadcrumbs before frying it on both sides in a generous amount of hot butter. Cook quickly on one side until golden, then turn and cook the other, and lift out of the pan with a perforated slice so that any surplus fat goes back into the pan. Serve with quartered lemons and a garnish of parsley.You may either serve these hot, with a green salad, or having drained them well, and allowed them to cool, they are equally delicious served cold."

This recipe was taken from "Italian Cooking" by Dorothy Daly. It was published by Spring Books in Great Britain. For the complete copyright-free cookbook see www.archive.org. A variety of recipes can also be found on this website.... Photo: Mary Melfi.

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