What is it?

[MtnBiker]

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/1365/11085355.JPG

[hjmick]

It's a mystery.

[MtnBiker]

It is Saltimbocca. Thin sliced veal with prosciutto and sage and sauted in butter. One of my favorite Italian dishes.

[Kathianne]

It is Saltimbocca. Thin sliced veal with prosciutto and sage and sauted in butter. One of my favorite Italian dishes.

Recipe? Please!

[remie]

Recipe? Please!

A little late I know but I love to make this recipe

Ingredients

Boneless skinless chicken breast
Fresh Sage leaves
Prosciutto ham very thinly sliced
Flour
olive oil and or butter
chicken stock
white wine


Pound the chicken breast until they are about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. Cover one side with fresh sage leaves (6 or 8 depending on size) and as much ham as it takes to completely cover the chicken (usually one or two slices depending on the size of the chicken and the ham) Lightly dust with flour and cook three to four minutes a side (until done) in a skillet with olive oil and or butter. Set the chicken aside in a warm oven and deglaze the skillet with 1/2 cup white wine scraping all the browned flour from the skillet. Add 1/2 cup chicken stock and reduce until there is about 1/4 cup of liquid. Pour over the cooked chicken and prepare to have a culinary orgasm!!!!

[Mr. P]

I love veal but stopped eating it years ago. I just can't deal with how it's produced.

[remie]

I love veal but stopped eating it years ago. I just can't deal with how it's produced.

I hear ya. Thats why I use chicken breasts instead of veal. Besides....good veal is really hard to find and for this recipe, chicken is just as good.

[MtnBiker]

I love veal but stopped eating it years ago. I just can't deal with how it's produced.

I'm curious, what is your objection to how veal is produced?

[Mr. P]

I hear ya. Thats why I use chicken breasts instead of veal. Besides....good veal is really hard to find and for this recipe, chicken is just as good.

It looks like a great recipe, Remie! I'll give er a try.

[dan]

I'm curious, what is your objection to how veal is produced?

Uhhhh, you do know how it's produced right? I eat it, love it, but I can't really think about what I'm eating too much or it makes me feel bad.

[Mr. P]

I'm curious, what is your objection to how veal is produced?

The confining of the calf.

[MtnBiker]

Uhhhh, you do know how it's produced right? I eat it, love it, but I can't really think about what I'm eating too much or it makes me feel bad.

I do, I find many people have misconceptions about veal. How do you believe veal is produced?

[MtnBiker]

The confining of the calf.

True enough, the calf is confined to a small area. The overwelming majority of chicken raised in this country is also confined to a small area.

Here is how I look at it, veal is a by product of the dairy industry. Veal is the male holstein dairy cow. Now to a dairy farmer what value does a male have? Typically only one or a couple of studs are used for breeding purposes. The young male has no value and is in fact a costly burden. Young males would be eliminated soon after birth if not used for veal. Some may have moral objections to veal but if that is the case the examination of other farm raised animals should be considered as well.

[MtnBiker]

A infromative video on veal.

http://www.vealfarm.com/veal-facts/index.asp

[Mr. P]

True enough, the calf is confined to a small area. The overwelming majority of chicken raised in this country is also confined to a small area.

Here is how I look at it, veal is a by product of the dairy industry. Veal is the male holstein dairy cow. Now to a dairy farmer what value does a male have? Typically only one or a couple of studs are used for breeding purposes. The young male has no value and is in fact a costly burden. Young males would be eliminated soon after birth if not used for veal. Some may have moral objections to veal but if that is the case the examination of other farm raised animals should be considered as well.
I know, but chickens are not prevented from moving around..It's not an ethical thing for me, it's more of a humane thing.

[MtnBiker]

I know, but chickens are not prevented from moving around..It's not an ethical thing for me, it's more of a humane thing.

A picture of a veal barn
http://www.calfdepot.com/calf-barnPWhn0716edit.jpg

The alternative would be to terminate them after birth.

[Classact]

A picture of a veal barn
http://www.calfdepot.com/calf-barnPWhn0716edit.jpg

The alternative would be to terminate them after birth.My brother and I used to raise veal in the 1950's as kids to make money on the farm. Typically, a family farm didn't keep all the calves, even females because the life span of an adult milk producing cow is pretty long. As a result the female calves retained for replacement stock were from the farms highest milk producers so large number of male and female calves were used for feeding out as veals. The dairy had automated milking machines so after a day or two the calves were removed from the cows to allow the cow to be milked by machine or several calves would suckle from one cow... keep in mind these dairy cows were bred to produce milk and as a result they produce ten times the amount necessary for one calf. Anyway the milk from a newly freshened cow is not marketable, it is known as colostrum, very rich in minerals, vitamins and anti bodies to support calves start in life... it almost looks like it has blood mixed in the milk for perhaps eight or ten days...

So the dairyman (dad) would save the colostrum milk for us and then we would buy powered milk to supplement it as the calves got larger. My father would drink colostrum from time to time to ward off colds sort of like an energy drink... I thought it sucked and couldn't stand it.

We always sold the veals at premium weight of about 200 pounds, larger caves would be considered not to be veal but beef because you can start feeding a calf grain and cheap hay after 200 pounds and they gain weight rapidly and cheaper than using the milk alone. Sometimes we would keep a couple of the bull calves to feed out so we would castrate all the male calves as soon as their nuts dropped because hormones start early in bulls and they loose weight running around after the heifers (we kept them in a single pen.) It only took six or eight weeks to have a market ready veal so perhaps times have changed but I'll bet you the money in my account a 200 pound veal taste better than a six month old milk fed calf.

[dan]

A picture of a veal barn
http://www.calfdepot.com/calf-barnPWhn0716edit.jpg

The alternative would be to terminate them after birth.

Like I said, I eat veal, I just try not to think about it too much. Just like I try not to think about the vein in a shrimp if I'm eating that.

But, seeing a picture of one calf farm doesn't mean anything to me. I've seen pictures of one or two McDonald's factories, that doesn't mean that I don't think the ones that aren't open to the public are filthy and well beyond health standards.

[Classact]

This reminds me of a story about shopping with my boys when they were 7 & 8, we were at the meat counter and my oldest asked, daddy what is this? And, I answered a cow's tongue... and if you had seen the look on their face... then machine gun rate rapid fire questions... that must have hurt? How does the cow eat without a tongue? It must have bled a lot? What kind of people eat cows tongues? I was dumbfounded.