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Trifles, Savoury
Any kind of cold meat, game, fish, or shell-fish may be elegantly served as follows. Mince the meat, season it, and warm it in a little sauce, as if it were to be used for vol-au-vents or patties. Make some paper cases by pressing a round of thick writing-paper into a circular wooden box to take the shape. Lightly oil these cases inside and out, fill them with the savoury mince, and put them into a brisk oven for a minute or two to make them hot. Sprinkle a few bread-crumbs over the top, and send the trifles to table neatly arranged on a napkin. They will make a pretty corner dish. Time to heat the mince in the cases, two or three minutes.
A Victorian way of using up cold roast meat, fish or shellfish, dressed up in homemade paper cases. The mince does all the work; the oven step is only for heat and a little colour.
- The hinge: heat the mince before it goes inThe cases spend only two or three minutes in the oven, which will not cook anything. Bring the minced meat and sauce properly hot in the pan first — 165F/74C throughout for previously cooked meat — and treat the oven as a warming step only.
- "Brisk oven"A hot oven; usually read as somewhere around 400-450F/200-230C, though the book gives no figure. Hot and short, so the paper crisps rather than steams.
- Paper casesThe original method is a round of thick writing paper pressed into a small wooden box to take its shape. Modern equivalents are stiff parchment rounds pleated into a muffin tin, or bought paper soufflé/petit-four cases. Do not substitute printed or coated paper in a hot oven; use unbleached parchment or purpose-made baking cases.
- OilingThe recipe gives no reason; oiling inside and out would plausibly help keep the filling from soaking through and the paper from scorching. Parchment needs no oil inside, but a light brush on the outside still helps it hold its shape instead of curling.
- "As if for vol-au-vents or patties"A thick bound mince, not a stew: finely chopped meat with just enough béchamel, velouté or reduced gravy to bind it, seasoned firmly. Too much sauce and the paper collapses.
- CrumbsIn the original the crumbs go on after the oven, so they will not toast at all. Toss them in a little melted butter first, or brown them in a pan beforehand, so they arrive golden.
- Shellfish and fish fillingsCooked crab, lobster or prawns need warming only until hot through; longer and they turn tough and weep liquid into the case. Add them to the hot sauce off the heat rather than simmering them in it.
- Yield and servingAllow about 2 tablespoons of mince per case. As written they are a "corner dish" — a small extra on a laid table.
"Savoury trifle" here has nothing to do with the sweet trifle of sponge and custard; the older sense of the word is simply a small trifling thing. It is really a technique for leftovers: the same seasoned bound mince that filled vol-au-vents, patties and croquettes, here portioned into individual cases. The paper case belongs to the same tradition as the French caisse, and homemade ones — a round of writing paper moulded over a wooden box or a jar — could be made up before pressed paper cases could be bought by the box. The instruction to send them to table on a napkin, and the note that they make a pretty corner dish, reflect the service of the period, where a formal table was filled out with small dishes set at the corners between the larger ones.