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Cecils
Mince very finely four table-spoonfuls of any kind of cold meat, and put it into a saucepan with an equal weight of finely-grated breadcrumbs, a dessert-spoonful of chopped onions, two or three boned anchovies, a little salt and pepper, half a tea-spoonful of chopped lemon-rind, a dessert-spoonful of minced parsley, and a piece of butter warmed. Mix them over the fire for a few minutes, then take them off, and, when cool, add the yolk of an egg. Form the mixture into balls rather larger than a hen's egg, dip them in beaten egg and bread-crumbs, and fry till they become a light brown. Serve with good brown gravy. Time to fry, ten minutes. Probable cost, exclusive of the cold meat, 1/2d. each. Allow one for each person.
A Victorian way of using up Sunday's roast: minced cold meat bound with crumbs, egg and anchovy, rolled, crumbed and fried. Almost everything here still works, but a few of the measures and the frying instruction need translating.
- Let it cool before the yolk goes inThis is the hinge. The mixture is warmed on the stove to melt the butter and bring it together, but a yolk stirred into a hot pan scrambles and the balls will not hold. Spread the mixture on a plate and let it come to room temperature, or chill it, before binding.
- Spoon sizesA dessert-spoonful is about 2 teaspoons in modern terms; a tablespoonful in a British book of this period is in the region of 15 ml, though period spoons varied. Four tablespoons of finely minced cooked meat is only about 2 oz / 60 g, and the recipe wants the same weight again in breadcrumbs, not the same volume.
- Boned anchoviesThe original means whole salted anchovies, which had to be rinsed and filleted off the bone. Two or three tinned anchovy fillets in oil, mashed to a paste, do the same job. They are the salt in the dish, so taste before adding more.
- Grated breadcrumbsGrated means dry crumbs from a stale loaf, rubbed on a grater — finer and thirstier than fresh soft crumbs. If you use fresh crumbs the mixture will be looser and you may need a little less.
- Frying temperature and timeThe book gives ten minutes and 'light brown' but no temperature. For balls the size of a hen's egg, a moderate fat of roughly 340-350F / 170-175C is a reasonable modern equivalent; hotter and the crumb coat colours long before the centre is hot. The meat is already cooked, so you are heating through, not cooking.
- Double coatingEgg-and-crumb once as written and the balls fry cleanly, but a second pass through egg and crumbs gives a shell that is far less likely to split in the fat. Rest the coated balls in the fridge for twenty minutes first.
- The gravy'Good brown gravy' in cookery of this period generally means a meat-based brown sauce, reduced and skimmed, rather than a thickened pan drip. A well-made beef stock reduced with a little browned flour would be in keeping.
- YieldThe quantities as given make only two or three balls of the stated size; the book allows one per person, which makes this a light supper or entree rather than a main course. Scale up in the same proportions of meat to crumbs.
"Cecils" appear across nineteenth-century English cookery books as one of the standard rechauff he results for days. The name's origin is genuinely obscure; it is often said to commemorate a member of the Cecil family, but no early source documents this, and the word may simply be a kitchen coinage that stuck. What is clear is the shape of the thing: minced meat, crumbs, onion, parsley, lemon rind and anchovy is the classic English forcemeat seasoning of the period, and the anchovy in particular is doing the work that Worcestershire sauce or a stock cube might do now, supplying salt and savour to meat that has already given its best juices to yesterday's dinner. The costing — a halfpenny each, exclusive of the meat — is Cassell's way of reminding the reader that the whole point is thrift.