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Gravy, Beef, Plain
Cut some coarse pieces of beef into dice, strew a little salt over them, and put them in a closely-covered saucepan, by the side of a gentle fire, until the juice flows from the meat and glazes at the bottom of the pan. Pour in as much boiling stock or water as will cover the meat, and simmer gently for an hour and a half. Probable cost of beef, 8d. per pound. Sufficient, half a pound of beef for a pint of gravy.
A basic brown gravy built on the fond from dry-searing diced beef, then extended with stock. The whole thing hinges on the first stage, which the recipe describes almost in passing.
- The hinge: let the juices glaze"Until the juice flows from the meat and glazes at the bottom of the pan" means the exuded liquid must reduce right down to a sticky brown film. Stop while it is deep amber; a black glaze will make the gravy bitter, and adding liquid too soon gives you weak grey broth.
- Lid on, then offLid on — The recipe keeps the pan closely covered while the juices are drawn out and reduce. If your pan traps too much steam for the juices to glaze, you may need to crack the lid towards the end, though the original does not say so.
- "Coarse pieces of beef"Shin, chuck or skirt — collagen-rich cuts that give body. Roughly 1/2 in dice; about 8 oz meat per pint (2 cups) of finished gravy, as stated.
- Gentle fireA low burner setting, or a heavy pan over medium-low. Cast iron or stainless steel is better than nonstick here, which will not build a usable fond.
- Stock or waterAdd it boiling, as directed, so the pan does not lose heat, and scrape the glaze up as it dissolves. Commercial broth is usually well salted, so go easy on the initial salting of the meat.
- Simmering timeAn hour and a half at a bare simmer is what the recipe calls for. The recipe says only to add enough liquid to cover the meat; top up if it reduces below the level you want.
- FinishingStrain, discard or reserve the spent meat, and skim the fat. The result is a thin, glossy gravy, not a floury sauce; thicken with a beurre manié or further reduction if you want it to coat.
- YieldAs written, about a pint, from half a pound of beef.
A plain beef gravy was infrastructure: it underpinned dozens of other dishes in a Victorian kitchen that had no bouillon cubes and no cartons of stock. The technique of drawing out the juices in a covered pan and letting them catch on the metal before adding liquid is essentially the making of a fond. The costing — eightpence a pound for coarse beef — is a reminder that these books were written for households keeping accounts, and that the cheap collagen-heavy cuts named here gave the most body for the money.