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Fowl, to Hash
Boil down the bones and trimmings of a roast or boiled fowl with a pint of stock; put in an onion or shallot, the rind of half a lemon, one blade of mace, pepper, and salt. Have ready in a clean stewpan the fowl, neatly arranged, and when the gravy has simmered half an hour strain it over, and add two ounces of butter rolled in flour, and two dessert-spoonfuls of mushroom ketchup. Serve with sippets of toasted bread. Time altogether, three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, exclusive of fowl, 5d. Sufficient for three or four persons. (See also FOWL, HASHED.)
A Victorian way of using up the carcass and cold meat of yesterday's bird: the bones make a quick gravy, the joints are merely warmed through in it. The one thing that matters is that the fowl is already cooked, so it should never boil in the sauce.
- Reheat, don't cookThe three-quarters of an hour is the total for the whole operation, thirty minutes of it spent simmering the bone stock before the meat goes near it. Cooked fowl needs only 5-10 minutes at a bare shiver in the strained gravy; boil it and the breast turns to string.
- QuantitiesA pint is 20 fl oz in this book (Imperial), so about 2.5 US cups. Two ounces of butter is 4 tablespoons, and two dessertspoonfuls is roughly 2 teaspoons short of 2 tablespoons -- call it 4 teaspoons.
- Butter rolled in flourThis is beurre manié: knead the 2 oz soft butter with about the same volume of flour, then whisk it into the hot gravy in small pieces off the boil. It thickens as it melts; added in one lump it will go lumpy.
- Mushroom ketchupNot tomato ketchup. It is a thin, dark, salty mushroom-and-spice liquor, still sold by British specialists; Worcestershire sauce or a spoonful of soy plus a little mushroom soaking liquor gives a comparable savoury depth. Season at the end, as it is salty.
- Mace and lemon rindOne blade of mace is the lacy outer coat of a nutmeg, about a quarter-teaspoon ground if blades are unavailable. Pare the lemon rind without white pith and strain both out with the bones.
- SippetsTriangles of bread toasted or fried in butter and set round the edge of the dish. Cut them thin, and add them at the table so they stay crisp.
- YieldThree to four as written, which assumes the meat from the one fowl. The gravy will reduce a little; if it tightens too far, loosen with stock rather than water.
Hashes of this kind were the backbone of the Victorian second-day table, where a roast fowl was expected to reappear as a made dish rather than as cold slices.