Contents
Veal Basics
Nutritional Information: Veal
How to Buy Veal
How to Store Veal
How to Cook Veal
Cuts of Veal
Leg (Round)
Shoulder
Foreshank and Breast
Rib
Loin
Sirloin
Veal Variety Meats
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- The different types and nutritional value of veal
- What to look for when buying veal, and how to store it after you buy
- A breakdown of all the different cuts of veal, and how to cook each type
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Veal Basics
Veal is meat from a calf. Calves are cows of either sex that are younger than nine months of age (which is about the time of the onset of puberty) and do not weigh more than 750 pounds. Calves used to produce veal are usually male calves from the dairy industry.
Whereas female calves can grow up to be milk producers, male calves cannot and so are usually of more value to dairy farmers as veal calves. Officially, veal is classified as a red meat, like beef, but in practice it is pinkish gray in color and is less fatty than other red meats.
Types of Veal
In the last few decades, the veal industry has undergone a major shift in the types of veal it produces.
Bob Veal and Grass-Fed Veal
Until about 20 years ago, there were two main types of veal: bob veal and grass-fed veal.
- Bob veal comes from extremely young calves, usually just 2–3 weeks old and no more than 150 pounds. Bob veal is very tender, almost limp, pale, and relatively flavorless.
- Grass-fed veal comes from larger calves allowed to graze through the summer and slaughtered in fall. Veal from these calves is much darker (very red) and much closer to beef in texture.
As tastes and the veal industry have changed, grass-fed veal has largely disappeared from the market, though Bob veal still can be found in some retail stores.
Special-Fed Veal and Grain-Fed Veal
As modern technology and changes in the veal industry have allowed producers to begin specializing in breeding calves, special-fed veal and grain-fed veal have become more prominent in the marketplace:
- Special-fed veal comes from animals that are raised indoors in individual stalls and feed almost exclusively on milk or formula derived from soy. Meat from calves raised on milk are often referred to as milk-fed veal. The calves are slaughtered at the age of 4–5 months, when they weigh approximately 300 pounds. The controlled diets of these calves results in veal that is a very light, whitish shade of pink. Though milk-fed veal is firmer than Bob veal, it is still very tender and delicate.
- Grain-fed veal comes from calves that feed on milk until the age of 6–8 weeks. At this point, the calves are removed from their individual interior stalls and placed in a fattening pen where they feed on grain. They are slaughtered at the age of 5 to 5 1/2 months, when they weigh approximately 340 pounds. Since grain-fed animals consume relatively large amounts of iron, their flesh is pinker than that of milk-fed animals. It also has a somewhat stronger flavor and is slightly less tender.
Of these two types of veal, special-fed veal is much more common.
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