Sautéing Veal

The best cuts for sautéing are taken from the rack, saddle, or round and are never inexpensive. There is nothing tricky about cooking veal rib chops (from the rack) or loin chops (from the saddle), because they are thick enough that you can brown them without their releasing water or overcooking. The round, however, is larger and has to be thinly sliced into scallops (scaloppine) for serving. It is almost impossible to brown or seal thin veal slices without their releasing water and boiling (and toughening) in their own juices. A better approach is to bread them as shown here and cook them relatively gently in clarified butter. The result is weinerschnitzel, which is more or less what the French call à la viennoise. If you have a good butcher or buy a whole veal top round, which typically weighs 3 to 4 pounds, you can cut the scallops yourself, across the grain, and relatively thick as shown. Be sure to specify that you want the round “cap off,” so you are left with only one solid muscle.