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Game, Essence Of
Take the remains of cold game. Divide them into small pieces, and put them into a saucepan with two or three ounces of butter, four shallots, finely minced, a sprig of thyme and basil, three cloves, and six peppercorns. Fry gently until they are brightly browned, then add a pint of stock, and boil on a gentle fire for twenty minutes. Strain through a sieve, and put aside for use. Probable cost, exclusive of the cold game, 6d. Two table-spoonfuls of the essence will flavour half a pint of gravy.
A concentrated game fumet built from roast leftovers — carcass, trimmings and any meat too dry to serve again. It is a flavouring, not a stock in its own right, and the whole thing stands or falls on the browning.
- The hinge: brown, don't blacken"Brightly browned" means a deep even colour on the meat, bones and shallots, with the butter still nutty rather than smoking. Scorched shallot or burnt butter turns the finished essence bitter, and twenty minutes of boiling will only concentrate that bitterness.
- What "cold game" meansThe remains of roast pheasant, partridge, grouse, hare or venison — bones included, since they carry a good deal of the flavour. Chop or crack the carcass small so it fits the pan and gives up more in twenty minutes. Farmed guinea fowl or duck will stand in, though the result is milder.
- A pint is an imperial pintCassell's pint is 20 fl oz, about 2.5 US cups. Use a decent unsalted brown stock; a salty commercial stock will be unpleasant once reduced and then added to gravy.
- Four shallotsShallots of the period were generally small, so four amount to less than they sound: roughly one modern banana shallot's worth, finely minced. Judge by volume rather than a fixed weight.
- Whole spices, strained outThe three cloves and six peppercorns go in whole and are caught by the sieve. Cloves dominate quickly, so do not increase them.
- Basil in a game dishNot a slip. Basil was a standard English pot-herb for meat and turtle cookery well into the nineteenth century, used as a dried or fresh sprig rather than the leafy handfuls of Italian cooking. One small sprig each of thyme and basil is right.
- Strain and pressPush the solids firmly against the sieve to get the last of the fat-borne flavour, then let the essence settle and lift the fat off once cold. A cloth-lined sieve gives a clearer result if the essence is going into a fine sauce.
- Yield and keepingExpect roughly 300-400 ml after twenty minutes of gentle boiling and straining — enough to flavour four or five pints of gravy at the rate given. "Put aside for use" meant a cold larder and use within a day or two; refrigerate and use within three days, or freeze in an ice-cube tray, one cube to a small jug of gravy.
Essences of this kind sit between stock and sauce: a small volume of intensely flavoured liquid held in reserve to lift whatever came next, what French kitchens called a fumet. Cassell's gives it as an entry titled "Game, Essence Of", and it is a technique to be applied to whatever the larder holds, answering a real problem of the late-Victorian household: game came in in season and often hung for days, and a cold roast bird that had already been served twice still had flavour worth extracting. The costing of sixpence "exclusive of the cold game" is the point of the entry: the raw material is treated as already paid for, and the cook is buying only butter, shallots and spice to turn scraps into something that makes a plain gravy taste of the shoot.