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Roebuck, Braised
Saw the shank and spine bones from a haunch of roebuck, pare away the skin from the upper part of the leg and the loin, and lard these bare portions closely and evenly with strips of bacon about six inches long and a quarter of an inch thick. These lardoons may be seasoned with pepper, salt, and powdered herbs. Place the haunch in a braising-pan, pour over it as much stock as will cover it, and add two carrots, three onions, two turnips, four or five outer sticks of celery, a bunch of sweet herbs, a blade of mace, two or three cloves, and half a tea-spoonful of peppercorns. Set the braisiere over a gentle fire, let its contents simmer very softly, and baste frequently till the meat is done enough. Drain it, and put it in the oven for a short time. Strain the liquor, and boil it down till thick. Baste the haunch with this until it has a bright glazed appearance, and serve as hot as possible. Garnish the dish with glazed carrots and onions. Time, three to four hours. Probable cost, 1s. 4d. to 2s. per pound. Sufficient for eight or ten persons.
A Victorian game braise built around larding and glazing, two techniques that have largely fallen out of domestic use. The method is sound, but the meat and the timing need thinking about before you commit a whole leg to it.
- What roebuck isThe roe deer, the smaller of the two deer native to Britain, with a haunch of roughly 4-7 lb. It is not sold in most markets; a leg of farmed red or fallow deer, or any venison haunch of similar weight, behaves the same way. Roe is generally milder and finer-grained than red deer, so a substitute may want less aggressive seasoning than you expect.
- LardingStrips of fatback or unsmoked streaky bacon a quarter-inch square, threaded through the lean with a larding needle. Without the needle, cut deep slits with a thin knife and push the strips in, or simply bard the joint by tying sheets of fat over the surface. Six-inch lardoons are for the full length of a haunch; cut to fit whatever you have.
- The braisiereA deep lidded pan that took coals on the lid as well as heat beneath. A heavy covered roaster or Dutch oven in the oven at 300F gives the same slow, even, all-round heat far more reliably than a gentle fire.
- Liquid levelStock "as will cover it" makes this closer to a poach than a modern braise, and dilutes the meat's flavour into the pot. Bringing the liquid halfway up the joint gives a better result and a more concentrated glaze at the end.
- Three to four hoursThat timing suits an older, tougher wild animal. A farmed venison haunch is very lean and will be dry and grey long before then. Cook to an internal temperature rather than the clock: around 130-135F at the thickest point for pink meat, or take the joint well past 190F if you want it genuinely falling apart, which on a leg is a gamble.
- Sweet herbs and maceA bunch of sweet herbs is a bouquet garni: parsley, thyme, bay. A blade of mace is one strip of the lacy aril from around a nutmeg; about a quarter-teaspoon of ground mace stands in, added late so it does not turn bitter.
- The glazeStraining and reducing the braising liquor to a syrupy demi-glace is the point of the dish. Skim the fat first, reduce hard, and brush it on in several coats in a hot oven, 425F, letting each dry to a shine before the next.
- Cost and yield1s. 4d. to 2s. per pound is pre-decimal sterling and tells you only that this was a luxury. Eight to ten portions is realistic for a whole haunch of this size.
Cassell's was aimed at a broad middle-class readership, and a haunch of roebuck sat firmly in the class of food that arrived as a gift from a shooting estate rather than over a butcher's counter. Deer were not farmed in Britain on any scale until the twentieth century, so venison in a nineteenth-century book is nearly always wild, variable in age and toughness, and lean enough that cooks reached for fat by every available route: larding needles, barding sheets, constant basting. Braising rather than roasting was a common insurance against an animal of unknown age, and the final glazing, a reduction painted on in layers, belongs to the French service that English kitchens of the period are generally said to have drawn on. The result was meant to reach the table looking lacquered, garnished with glazed roots, in a style of presentation that a modern cook would recognise as more restaurant than home.