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Gravy, Colouring and Flavouring
In colouring gravies the same directions may be followed which have been given for colouring soups (see COLOURING). When this is done, however, care must be taken that the flavour given by it is not sufficiently strong to be detected. When gravy is made from stock, all danger of this may be removed by combining the colouring and flavouring. Prepare the stock separately. Set it aside, and put a piece of butter about the size of a walnut into a saucepan, with two ounces of uncooked lean ham, chopped small, a shallot, finely minced, a sprig of thyme or marjoram, a sprig of parsley, and three cloves. Cover the pan closely, and let these stew slowly for half an hour. Shake the pan several times to prevent the meat burning, and when the contents of the pan are brightly browned, add three-quarters of a pint of unflavoured stock. Boil all together another half-hour, thicken, if necessary, with a tea-spoonful of flour, add salt and pepper, and strain before serving. Probable cost, 4d., exclusive of the stock. Sufficient for nearly three-quarters of a pint of gravy.
A brown gravy essence rather than a sauce in its own right: ham, shallot and herbs are sweated hard in butter until the pan browns, then let down with stock. The colour and the flavour arrive together, which is the whole point of the method.
- The hinge: brown, do not burnEverything depends on the fond that forms on the base of the covered pan. Keep the heat low, shake often, and stop the moment the contents are a deep even brown; a scorched pan gives a bitter gravy that no amount of stock will rescue.
- Why not just use colouringThe "colouring" cross-referred to would most often have been burnt-sugar caramel, sold as browning. Used heavily it tastes faintly of scorched treacle, the sort of detectable flavour the text warns against. Browning the ham and aromatics does the same job with no off-taste.
- Butter the size of a walnutAbout 1 oz, or 2 tablespoons. Enough to film the pan and carry the heat into the ham without frying it dry.
- Uncooked lean hamHam that has not been cooked, i.e. raw cured ham rather than a slice off a boiled one. Prosciutto crudo, pancetta or a thick slice of raw unsmoked bacon all work; heavily smoked bacon will dominate the finished gravy.
- Three-quarters of a pintImperial measure, so 15 fl oz, a little under 2 US cups. The yield is roughly the same, which means the half-hour boil is meant to be a gentle one with little reduction.
- ThickeningA teaspoon of flour to 15 fl oz is very light, giving body rather than a coating sauce. Slake it with a spoonful of cold stock before stirring it in, or the strained gravy will carry lumps.
- Seasoning orderSalt last and sparingly. Ham, and any concentrated stock, both bring salt of their own, and the half-hour boil concentrates what is there.
- Yield and useJust under 15 fl oz, for serving alongside roast meat or poultry, or as the base for a made-up brown sauce. The 4d. cost is exclusive of the stock, which was assumed to be in the house already.
Cassell's belongs to the era of the standing stockpot, when a household kitchen was expected to have unflavoured brown or white stock on hand and to build individual sauces from it as needed. What is described here is essentially a small-scale version of the French practice of drawing an essence from ham, shallot and herbs before moistening with stock, close in logic to the ham-and-vegetable mirepoix behind espagnole. The insistence on colouring and flavouring together reads as a caution against relying on bottled browning, which was caramel-based and easy to overdose. The price note, 4d. exclusive of stock, is typical of the dictionary's format: it was written for cooks working to a household budget who needed to know what a dish would add to the week's books.