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Game, Sauce For
Put a piece of butter the size of an egg into a saucepan, with two minced shallots, and six ounces of the shin of beef, cut into small pieces, or the remains of a roasted partridge. Fry until lightly and equally browned, and to secure this, turn frequently. Pour on gradually one pint of boiling water, add a blade of mace, a sprig of parsley, two bay-leaves, and a little salt and pepper. Thicken with a table-spoonful of flour mixed smoothly with a little water, add a little browning, if necessary, and simmer gently for an hour and a half. Strain, clear well from fat, and boil up again, adding one glass of claret and a table-spoonful of walnut ketchup. Pour a little of the gravy round the birds, and send the rest to table in a tureen. Probable cost, 9d., exclusive of the wine. Sufficient for a brace of small birds.
A simple brown gravy built on shin of beef or leftover game, thickened early and simmered long. Nothing here is difficult, but several of the ingredients now go by other names or have vanished from shops.
- Butter the size of an eggAbout 2 oz, or 4 tablespoons. Victorian books often gave fat by comparison with a familiar object rather than by weight.
- Shin of beefSold now as beef shank or shin, usually bone-in. Six ounces of trimmed meat cut small is what is wanted; its gelatine is the point, so do not substitute a lean steak.
- ClaretA dry red Bordeaux, or any dry, moderately tannic red. A "glass" in this period is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz. It goes in at the very end and is boiled only briefly, which keeps the wine tasting fresh rather than stewed.
- Walnut ketchupA thin, dark, salty condiment of green walnuts, vinegar and spice, still made by a few British producers but not a supermarket item. Mushroom ketchup is the closest substitute; a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce works in the same register, though it is sweeter and more tamarind-forward.
- BrowningCommercial gravy browning, essentially burnt-sugar caramel colouring. It contributes colour rather than flavour, and if the beef and shallots have been properly browned in the first step you will not need it.
- Blade of maceA whole piece of the dried aril from nutmeg, not ground mace. If you only have ground, use a small pinch, since it will not be strained out.
- The hinge: brown the meat properly, then degreaseAll the colour and depth comes from the initial frying, so take the meat and shallots to an even deep brown before the water goes in. After straining, let the gravy settle and lift the fat off completely; a pint reduced over ninety minutes with butter in it will otherwise taste greasy behind the wine.
- YieldThe pint will reduce somewhat over the hour and a half's gentle simmering. "A brace of small birds" means two -- partridge, grouse or woodcock -- serving two to four; some is spooned round the birds on the dish and the rest goes to table separately.
Sauce for game in a book like this is a working recipe rather than a luxury: the structure is a small brown stock, thickened with flour and finished with wine and a bottled condiment. Walnut ketchup, now nearly forgotten, was one of the standard English store-cupboard sauces of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, made from green walnuts picked before the shell hardened and used much as we use Worcestershire. The costing of ninepence, exclusive of the wine, points to the book's audience: households running on a budget, buying six ounces of shin because it was cheap and gelatinous, and using yesterday's roasted bird when there was one to spare.