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Beef, Galantine Of
Take one pound of beef and half a pound of bacon, and cut into very small pieces. Put into a basin with six ounces of bread-crumbs, and season with pepper and salt. Beat up two eggs with one gill of stock, pour into the other ingredients, and mix well. Form into a short roll with the hands, tie in a pudding cloth, boil for two and a half hours, press slightly until cold, and pour a rich glaze over. Probable cost, 1s. 8d.
A Victorian cold-buffet loaf rather than a true boned-and-rolled galantine: coarse forcemeat, poached in a cloth, pressed and glazed. It stands or falls on the mix being bound tightly enough to slice.
- The gillIn an English book of this date a gill is a quarter of an imperial pint, 5 fl oz, about two-thirds of a US cup. Whisked with two eggs it gives roughly 8 fl oz of liquid to bind a pound and a half of meat and 6 oz of crumbs.
- Cut, not minced"Very small pieces" is deliberate. Hand-chopped beef and bacon give the mottled, close-grained cut surface a galantine wants; a food processor will turn the mixture to paste and the slices will be rubbery.
- The bacon mattersHalf a pound of bacon to one pound of beef is the fat and the seasoning both. The recipe says only 'bacon'; a fatty cut such as streaky or belly will suit it better than modern lean back bacon, which is likely to leave the loaf dry.
- Bread-crumbsSix ounces is a large proportion by modern taste. Assume soft fresh crumbs, not dried packet crumbs, which absorb far more liquid and would make the mixture stodgy.
- The clothScald a square of unbleached muslin or a linen tea towel, wring it out, flour the inside and roll the meat in it firmly, tying both ends and along the length so the roll cannot swell. A double layer of cling film inside a foil roll does the same job and is easier to keep watertight.
- Boil means simmerA rolling boil bursts the binding and drives the fat out. Keep the water at a bare tremble for the two and a half hours. Mixed beef and pork products should reach 160F/71C at the centre; check with a probe through the cloth at the end.
- Pressing"Press slightly until cold" means laying the roll on a tray with a board and a couple of tins on top, in the refrigerator overnight. Too much weight squeezes out the juices and the slices go dense.
- The glazeA rich glaze here is meat stock reduced to a syrup that sets, or aspic; brush it on the cold, dry loaf in thin coats. Modern equivalent: strong beef stock with a little gelatine, cooled to the point of setting before brushing.
- Yield and servingThe raw mixture comes to roughly 2 lb 6 oz, so expect something around 2 lb finished after boiling: enough for eight to ten thin slices as a cold course with salad, mustard and pickles. At a probable cost of 1s 8d it reads as an economical dish rather than a banquet piece.
A true galantine is a bird or a joint boned out, stuffed with forcemeat, rolled in its own skin, poached and served cold under aspic. The origin of the word is uncertain: one commonly repeated suggestion connects it with an Old French word for a hen, which would make it originally a chicken dish, while others derive it from the Old French galatine and ultimately from words for jelly. By the late nineteenth century the name had loosened considerably, and Cassell's uses it here for a pressed, glazed cold meat roll suitable for the sideboard. That is what this is: no boning, no skin, just chopped beef and bacon bound with crumbs and egg and poached in a pudding cloth, the same cloth-boiling technique English kitchens used for suet puddings and hams. Cold pressed meats suited Victorian buffet and picnic cookery because they could be made a day ahead, sliced without carving skill, and stretched with breadcrumbs; the glaze served for display and to seal the cut surface as much as for flavour.