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Pork, Hashed
Cut a pound and a half of cold roast pork into neat slices. If any gravy was left from the joint, it may be thickened with a tea-spoonful of brown roux, or with flour and butter flavoured with a little mushroom-ketchup or any other flavouring, and used for the hash. If this is not at hand, put the bones and trimmings which were cut from the meat into a saucepan with a sliced onion, a clove, a blade of mace, a little salt and pepper, and a pint of water. Stew gently for an hour or more, skim and strain the gravy, and flavour as above. Put in the slices of pork, and let them heat gently by the side of the fire for about twenty minutes. The gravy must not boil until after the meat is added. Serve on a hot dish, garnish with toasted sippets, and send apple sauce to table in a tureen. The gravy may be made more savoury by gently frying the onion in butter before stewing it, and, if liked, sage and onion sauce may accompany the hash. Time, half an hour after the gravy is made. Probable cost, exclusive of the cold meat, 4d. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A Victorian way of using up cold roast pork, and a good one, provided the meat is warmed rather than cooked a second time. The whole method hinges on keeping the liquid below a simmer.
- The hinge: never let it boilSliced cooked pork dropped into boiling gravy tightens and goes dry and stringy within minutes. Hold the pan at 160-180F, a bare quiver with no bubbles breaking, for the full 20 minutes; the slices should be hot through but still tender.
- "By the side of the fire"On a coal range this meant the cooler edge of the hob. Use the lowest gas ring with a heat diffuser, or set the covered pan in a 250F oven for 20-25 minutes.
- Brown rouxA teaspoonful of butter and flour cooked together to a nut brown. Some kitchens kept a quantity ready-made, which is why the recipe assumes it may be at hand. Make it fresh from 1 tsp butter and 1 tsp flour cooked together three or four minutes, or thicken with the flour-and-butter alternative the recipe already offers.
- Mushroom ketchupNot tomato ketchup but a thin, dark, salty mushroom extract, still sold by some British makers. Worcestershire sauce, or a splash of soy with a dash of vinegar, gives the same savoury depth.
- Blade of maceA blade is one dried segment of nutmeg aril. Substitute a pinch of ground mace, or a very small grating of nutmeg, added to the stock rather than boiled hard.
- SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of toasted or fried bread, arranged points inward round the dish. Cut them from a firm white loaf and toast them dry so they do not sog in the gravy.
- Quantities and yieldA pint here is the imperial pint, 20 fl oz (about 570 ml), so a little under 2 1/2 US cups of water for the bone stock. The recipe feeds three or four; 1 1/2 lb of cooked meat is generous for four with potatoes alongside.
- Reheating cooked porkCold roast pork that has been properly refrigerated is safe to warm through, but bring it right up to temperature in one go rather than letting it sit lukewarm. Skim the fat from the stock before the meat goes in, or the sauce turns greasy.
Hashes of this kind were the backbone of Victorian household economy: a large joint was roasted for one meal, and the remains reappeared warmed in a made gravy for the next, with the bones and trimmings boiled down to supply the liquid so nothing was bought twice. The habit of quoting a "probable cost, exclusive of the cold meat" (4d here) is a reminder that these books were sold to mistresses managing a weekly budget as much as to cooks. The accompaniments are pure English pork tradition, apple sauce sent to table in a tureen and, optionally, sage and onion sauce, both of which would have been served with the original roast. The instruction to keep the gravy off the boil reflects the principle that already-cooked meat is only ever reheated, never cooked again.