Home › The Principles of Cookery › GRAVY, COW-HEEL (clear)
GRAVY, COW-HEEL (clear)
Put a cow-heel, which has been scalded and properly prepared, but not boiled, into a saucepan, with an onion, a sprig of thyme, a blade of mace, half a dozen peppercorns, and three pints of cold water. Skim it carefully, and, when the scum ceases to rise, cover the pan closely, and simmer gently by the side of the fire for three hours. Strain carefully, and put aside until cold; remove the fat from the top, and pour off the gravy, being careful to leave the sediment undisturbed. Probable cost, one cow-heel, 6d. Sufficient for a pint and a half of gravy.
A gelatine-rich clear stock rather than a sauce: three pints of water reduced to a pint and a half of liquid that sets to a firm jelly when cold. The whole point is clarity, so the handling of scum and sediment matters more than anything else.
- Sourcing the heelCow-heel is the foot of an ox or cow (a calf's foot is a different, younger cut, though used for the same purpose). It is still sold by halal and Caribbean butchers and by any butcher who will order it; ask for it split. "Scalded and properly prepared" means the hair and hoof have been removed and the foot cleaned and blanched but not cooked through — a butcher-prepared foot is usually already at this stage.
- Start in cold waterCold water and a slow rise are what pull the coagulating proteins to the surface as scum. Starting hot sets them into the liquid and no amount of later straining will give a clear result.
- "By the side of the fire"A range-side simmer means barely moving water, perhaps 180–190F, with an occasional bubble. On a modern hob use the lowest setting, keeping the pan closely covered as the recipe directs. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat and clouds the gravy.
- Three hours is a minimumThree hours -- The three hours specified will extract plenty of gelatine; a longer simmer of four to five hours may give a firmer set provided the heat stays low. Judge by the liquid: it should feel tacky between finger and thumb.
- A blade of maceOne blade is a single dried strip of the aril around a nutmeg, roughly equivalent to a quarter teaspoon of ground mace — though the ground spice will cloud the stock, so use whole if you can get it.
- No salt in the originalThe recipe calls for no salt. As a base likely to be reduced or built on later, it is better salted at the point of use than now, or a reduction will end up brutal.
- Skimming the fatChilling overnight sets the fat into a disc that lifts off whole. Wipe the surface of the jelly with a cloth wrung out in hot water to take the last film.
- Leaving the sedimentThe last half-inch in the bowl will be cloudy. Pour the clear jelly off and stop early rather than chasing the last spoonful — the sediment is what ruins an otherwise clear result.
- Yield and keepingAbout 1.5 pints (roughly 850 ml), which should set to a jelly. Keeps a few days refrigerated, or freeze in ice-cube trays for use in sauces, aspics and braises.
Cow-heel was one of the great cheap larder staples of nineteenth-century Britain: sixpence bought a foot that yielded a pint and a half of setting stock, at a time when commercial gelatine is generally said to have been expensive and isinglass more so. The jelly is a building block — it underlies aspics, glazes, moulded savouries and the "restorative" broths pressed on invalids, who were thought to benefit from concentrated gelatine. Feet, being nearly all skin, tendon and connective tissue, are almost pure collagen, and long slow heat converts that collagen to gelatine; the same chemistry sits behind pig's trotters in brawn, calf's-foot jelly in the sickroom, and the body of a modern chef's veal stock. Tripe-and-cow-heel shops were a fixture of northern English market towns well into the twentieth century.