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Gravy for Veal and Ham Pie
Bone a calf's foot and cut it into pieces about two inches square, add it to the bones and trimmings of the veal and ham used in the pie. Put these into a stewpan with a quart of light stock, an onion stuck with two cloves, a bunch of herbs, a salt-spoonful of salt and one of pepper. Boil up and skim, then gently simmer for two hours. Skim the fat off, tamis the gravy, and pour it into the pie when only just warm. Put aside in a cool place to set.
This is not a sauce but a setting jelly: the aspic poured into a raised veal-and-ham pie after baking, which fills the gap left as the meat shrinks and sets the pie firm enough to slice cold.
- The hinge: pour it barely warmHot jelly melts the fat and softens the pastry base; cold jelly will not run into the cavity. It should be at the point of thickening, just pourable, and go in through the hole in the lid, a little at a time, letting each addition settle.
- Calf's foot means gelatineThe foot is there purely for setting power, and a butcher will usually order one with notice. Pig's trotters do the same job. If neither is available, powdered gelatine bloomed and dissolved in the finished stock is the practical substitute; about 1 oz to a quart of liquid gives a firm slicing set.
- TamisA tammy is a fine woollen or hair straining cloth. Line a sieve with a double thickness of damp muslin and let the gravy drip through without pressing, or it will cloud.
- Light stockA pale, unroasted veal or chicken stock, unsalted or barely salted. An imperial quart is 40 fl oz, about 1.1 litres; some of it will boil away over the two hours' simmering.
- Salt-spoonfulAbout a quarter of a teaspoon. Season lightly here: the ham bones and trimmings give up a good deal of salt during the simmer, and jelly tastes saltier warm than cold.
- Bunch of herbsA bouquet garni of parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf. Tie it so it can be lifted out cleanly before straining.
- Skim twiceOnce at the first boil for the grey scum, and again after the two hours, as the recipe directs, to take the fat off before straining. Fat left in the jelly sets cloudy and greasy on the tongue.
- Cooling and keepingCool the filled pie quickly and refrigerate it; a large pie left in a modern warm kitchen sits too long in the danger range. Once set, keep it chilled and eat within three or four days.
- YieldA quart of stock, less what boils away in the simmering. Any surplus can be set in a shallow dish and chopped as a garnish.
Jellied gravy is what distinguishes a cold raised pie from a hot one, and the calf's foot was a standard source of gelatine in British kitchens before commercial leaf and powder became cheap and reliable in the later nineteenth century. Feet, knuckles and skin were simmered for hours to draw out collagen, and the same stock served for aspics, blancmanges and invalid broths. Veal and ham pie belongs to the Victorian cold table, the sideboard spread of raised pies, tongue and galantines that could be cut at any hour.