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Roebuck, Haricot Of
A shoulder or neck of roebuck may be cooked thus. If the neck is chosen, divide it into thick cutlets; or if the shoulder, cut the meat off in pieces not larger than an egg. Fry these in butter till browned, take up the meat, mix with the fat as much flour as will make a stiff paste, beat it with the back of a wooden soon till it is smoothly and lightly coloured, and then moisten it gradually with as much stock as will cover the roebuck. Add pepper and salt, together with three or four carrots, two turnips, and four onions, cut into neat shapes not larger than a small walnut. Let the liquor boil, then draw the saucepan to the side of the fire, and let its contents simmer very gently until done enough. Be very careful to remove the scum and fat as it rises. Strain the sauce into a small stewpan, and boil it down until it is sufficiently thick to coat the spoon. Put with it two table-spoonfuls of red-currant jelly and a glass of port. Trim the pieces of meat, and heat them in it, add the vegetables, and serve all on one dish very hot. Time, about two hours. Probable cost, roebuck, 1s. 4d. to 2s. per pound. Sufficient for six or eight persons.
A classic brown stew built on a roux made in the frying fat, thickened at the end with reduction rather than more flour. Roe deer is not sold in most countries outside Europe, but any lean venison behaves the same way.
- The meatRoebuck is roe deer, a small European species. Substitute venison shoulder or neck (red deer, fallow, or farmed axis), or in a pinch lean lamb neck. The recipe gives no weight, only that it serves six to eight.
- The hinge: gentle simmer, never a boilVenison is very lean and its collagen wants long, slow heat. "Draw the saucepan to the side of the fire" means bring it barely to a boil, then hold it at a bare shiver — roughly 180F. A rolling boil tightens the muscle fibres and leaves the meat dry and stringy, which extra time will not really put right.
- Cutting sizePieces "not larger than an egg" are about 2 inches; vegetables cut "not larger than a small walnut" are roughly 1 inch. Both are still good practice — the meat holds shape over two hours, the vegetables cook through without collapsing.
- The roux"As much flour as will make a stiff paste" means at least as much flour as fat by volume, and probably more, since a paste stiff enough to beat is thicker than an equal-parts roux; perhaps 3-4 tablespoons for the butter needed to brown this quantity of meat. Cook it until pale gold before adding stock, and add the stock in stages, whisking, or it will lump.
- Timing the vegetablesTwo hours will reduce carrots, turnips and onions to pulp. Add them for the last 40-45 minutes, or cook them separately and combine at the end, as the recipe's own final step allows.
- SkimmingThe instruction to remove scum and fat is doing real work here. The flour holds fat in suspension, so pull the pot slightly off-centre on the burner: convection drives the fat and froth to the cool side where a spoon can lift them off.
- Port and currant jellyA "glass" in Victorian cookery usually means a wineglassful, nearer 2 fl oz than a modern glass. Add both to the strained, reduced sauce and let it simmer a few minutes so the wine loses its raw edge. Ruby port suits it better than tawny.
- Cost note"1s. 4d. to 2s. per pound" is Victorian shillings and pence, of no use as a guide now.
Roe deer was the smallest of Britain's native deer, and unlike red deer from a managed park it often reached the kitchen through estate culls and country gifts rather than a butcher's counter icionaries carry a range of ways to use it, from roast haunch down to this thrifty treatment of the neck and shoulder. "Haricot" here has nothing to do with beans in the modern sense: it is the old French haricot de mouton, a stew of meat cut small with root vegetables, and the name is generally traced to harigoter, to cut up or shred, rather than to the bean, which acquired the word later. The red-currant jelly and port are the standard English signature for game of any kind, a sweet-acid counterweight to venison's leanness that appears with equal regularity beside a plain roast haunch.