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GRAVY FOR CUTLETS (another way)
After the cutlets have been fried, lift them out of the pan, and put them in the oven on a hot dish. Mix a table-spoonful of flour very smoothly with a table-spoonful of the fat from the cutlets and stir it over the fire with a wooden spoon till it is lightly browned; add half a pint of boiling water, a little salt and pepper, and a table-spoonful of Harvey's sauce, or ketchup, or a table-spoonful of finely-minced gherkins, walnuts, capers, or any favourite pickle. When a rich sauce is wanted, a wineglassful of port may be added. Serve in a tureen. Time, five minutes. Probable cost, 3d., exclusive of the wine. Sufficient for one pound of cutlets.
A pan gravy built on the fat left from frying cutlets, thickened with a brown roux and sharpened with a bottled sauce or chopped pickle. It comes together in the time the cutlets rest.
- The hinge: boiling water, not coldThe recipe specifies boiling water. Hot liquid stirred hard into the hot roux brings the sauce together quickly; whichever temperature you use, it is the steady stirring that keeps the starch dispersed.
- Half a pintThis is an imperial half-pint, 10 fl oz or about 1¼ US cups (285 ml). With a tablespoon each of fat and flour that gives a pouring gravy rather than a thick one, which is what is wanted here.
- A wineglassfulRoughly 2 fl oz (60 ml) in Victorian usage. Add the port with the water rather than at the end, so it has a few minutes to lose its raw edge.
- Harvey's sauceA commercial anchovy-and-soy condiment, spiced with garlic and cayenne, widely sold in Britain through the nineteenth century and hard to find today. Worcestershire is the closest thing on a modern shelf; mushroom ketchup if you have it.
- KetchupHere ketchup most likely means mushroom or walnut ketchup, a thin dark savoury liquid rather than tomato, though tomato ketchup was known by this date. Tomato ketchup will make a sweeter gravy of a different character altogether.
- Browning the roux"Lightly browned" means the colour of a hazelnut and a smell of toast, usually two to three minutes over moderate heat. Take it further and the flour loses thickening power; stop too soon and the gravy tastes pasty.
- Keeping the cutlets hotA modern oven at its lowest setting, around 200F (95C), holds fried cutlets without cooking them further. Leave the dish uncovered so the coating does not go soft.
- Timing and yieldFive minutes is enough once the liquid is in, though a couple more will do no harm and improves the texture. The quantity dresses a pound of cutlets, which is two to three servings.
- Seasoning orderHarvey's sauce, ketchup and capers all carry salt. Season lightly at the start and correct once the chosen flavouring is in.
Gravy of this kind is the plain domestic application of what French kitchens formalised as a roux brun: fat, flour, browning, liquid. What dates the recipe is the list of finishing agents. Harvey's sauce, walnut and mushroom ketchup, and jars of pickled gherkins, walnuts and capers were fixtures of the Victorian store cupboard, bought in or put up at home, and their job was to supply in a moment the depth that a long-simmered stock would otherwise provide. Cassell's leans on them constantly. The costing in pence, given here as 3d. exclusive of the wine, was a standard feature of the book.