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Savoury Rice
Put half a pound of rice into a saucepan with a slice of butter or dripping, a seasoning of salt and spice, and three pints of water. Simmer it gently till it is tender, drain it, pile it upon a hot dish, cover the surface with a layer of grated Cheshire cheese, and serve. Or, boil half a pound of rice in three pints of water till tender. Season with pepper and salt, add a slice of dripping and two or three onions chopped small, stir the rice over the fire till the onions are tender, and serve in a hot dish. Or, break three pounds of meat-bones into small pieces. Put these into a large stewpan, and pour over them five quarts of cold water. Bring the liquor gradually to the boil, skim carefully, draw the saucepan to the side, let its contents simmer gently for four hours, and carefully remove the scum as it rises. A small bunch of savoury herbs may be stewed with the stock for the last hour. Slice an onion, and cut up a quarter of a pound of vegetables, composed of equal portions of carrots, turnips, celery, etc. Fry these in butter, stirring them briskly over the fire till the onions begin to turn yellow, sprinkle over them a quarter of a pound of fine oatmeal, and pour the stock from the bones upon them. Add two ounces of soaked rice, boil all gently together till this is tender. Season with pepper and salt, and serve. Time, five hours. Probable cost, 1s. Sufficient for ten or twelve persons.
SAVOURY SPIRIT, FOR IMPARTING A FLAVOUR OF HERBS TO SOUPS, SAUCES, ETC. Take one ounce each of dried lemon-thyme, sweet marjoram, sweet basil, and winter savory. Mix them, and put them into a stone jar with a quarter of an ounce of grated lemon-rind, a quarter of an ounce of minced shallot, and two saltspoonfuls of bruised celery-seed. Pour over them a quart of fine proof spirit, and let them infuse for the space of ten days. Strain the liquor, bottle closely, and store for use. If liked, vinegar can be used instead of spirit, but it will not draw out the flavour of the herbs so well. SAVOURY SPIRIT, FOR IMPARTING A FLAVOUR OF SPICE TO SOUPS, SAUCES, ETC. Mix thoroughly two ounces of powdered black pepper with one ounce of powdered allspice and half an ounce of grated nutmeg. Put the powdered mixture into a jar, and pour over it a quart of fine proof spirit. Let it infuse for ten days, then strain off the liquor, bottle closely, and store for use. If preferred, the powder may be prepared as follows. Pound in a mortar a quarter of an ounce of ginger, a quarter of an ounce of grated nutmeg, two drachms of cayenne pepper, half an ounce of ground black pepper, half an ounce of grated lemon-rind, a quarter of an ounce of allspice, an ounce of dry salt, and half an ounce of French mustard. Proceed as before.
Three separate dishes are run together here under one heading, plus two flavouring infusions. The first two are quick suppers; the third is really a bone-stock soup thickened with oatmeal, and it is that one the time, cost and yield refer to.
- The hinge: rice as pastaHalf a pound of rice in three pints of water is a boil-and-drain ratio, not an absorption one. Salt the water, cook until just tender (12-15 minutes for long-grain, less for basmati) and drain well so the grains stay separate under the cheese.
- Imperial measuresThese are British pints of 20 fl oz, so three pints is about 7.2 US cups and five quarts about 6 US quarts. A saltspoonful is a quarter teaspoon; a drachm is an eighth of an ounce, roughly 3.5-3.9 g.
- "A slice of butter or dripping"A vague Victorian unit meaning whatever you cut off the block: reckon on 1 to 1.5 oz (30-40 g). Beef dripping gives the onion version its proper savour, but butter or oil works.
- Cheshire cheeseA crumbly, salty, mild-acid cheese that melts in patches rather than smoothly. Lancashire or a young Wensleydale substitutes closely; a mild Cheddar will do, though it is greasier when it melts.
- The oatmeal soupA quarter pound of fine oatmeal is the thickener, so use fine or medium oatmeal rather than rolled oats, and stir the stock in gradually or it will lump. The two ounces of rice are added soaked, which shortens their cooking to around 15 minutes in the finished soup.
- Stock timingFour hours' bare simmer on meat bones is still sound practice. The recipe adds its small bunch of savoury herbs only in the final hour, which keeps their flavour from being boiled away.
- "Fine proof spirit"British proof spirit was about 57% alcohol by volume, stronger than modern 40% vodka. Use a neutral 40% spirit and expect a slightly weaker extraction, or use overproof if you want the original strength. These are seasoning tinctures, added drop by drop, not drinks.
- Yield and costThe soup serves ten to twelve; each rice dish serves roughly four as a supper or six as a side. The "probable cost, 1s" attaches to the soup, and gives a fair sense of why bones and oatmeal appear at all.
Cassell's places this in the reference run of "savoury" entries, where the compilers were less interested in a single dish than in showing what could be done with a cheap staple. Rice in a British kitchen of this period was often treated as a pudding grain, and "savoury rice" may have been worth naming for that reason: the cheese and onion versions are meatless suppers of the sort recommended to households watching the butcher's bill. The third variation belongs to a different tradition, the oatmeal-thickened bone broth associated with Scottish and northern cookery, since it turned three pounds of bones and a handful of root vegetables into twelve portions. The two "savoury spirits" that follow are store-cupboard tinctures of a kind made before commercial extracts and bottled sauces were cheap and everywhere; a cook who had made them in autumn could season a soup in January without a fresh herb in the house.