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Veal, Roast, Sauce For
Brown sauce is generally served with roast real (see VEAL, GRAVY FOR), but clear brown gravy, melted butter coloured with ketchup, tomato, sorrel sauce, and bechamel are also served with it. Or a sauce may be prepared as follows. Mince an anchovy, and boil it with a minced shallot in good stock till the anchovy is dissolved. Strain the liquor, stir into it a dessert-spoonful of lemon-juice and a glassful of port, let it boil, then mix it with the gravy in the pan. Time, about twenty minutes to simmer the gravy.
The entry is really two things: a list of the sauces a Victorian kitchen considered acceptable with roast veal, and one specific anchovy-and-port sauce built on the roasting-pan drippings. Only the second needs translating.
- The hinge: dissolve the anchovy completelyThe anchovy must break down entirely in the stock before straining, or you get salty threads rather than a savoury backbone. Cut it small, keep the stock at a bare simmer, and mash it against the side of the pan as it softens.
- What "an anchovy" means hereMost likely a whole salt-cured anchovy of the sort then sold from a barrel, rinsed before use. Two oil-packed fillets, or a scant teaspoon of anchovy paste, give roughly the same salt and umami.
- A glassful of portGenuinely ambiguous. A Victorian wineglassful was usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz, though larger glasses were also in use; start at 2 fl oz and taste, since port reduces to something quite sweet.
- Dessert-spoonfulBetween a teaspoon and a tablespoon, about 2 teaspoons. For lemon juice, add it at the end and to taste rather than measuring.
- Season lastAnchovy, reduced stock and pan drippings are all salty. Do not salt until the sauce has been combined with the gravy and simmered down.
- Deglaze properly"Mix it with the gravy in the pan" means pour off most of the fat, set the roasting tin over heat, and scrape up the browned residue as the sauce goes in. That fond is most of the flavour.
- Twenty minutes to simmerThat is a reduction time, not a cooking time. Judge by consistency: it should coat a spoon lightly. Strain again before serving if the shallot has left solids.
- The cross-reference"See VEAL, GRAVY FOR" points to a separate entry for the brown gravy this sauce is folded into. Any well-made brown veal or chicken stock, reduced, stands in for it.
Veal was the pale, mild centre of the nineteenth-century English roast repertoire, and its mildness is one reason it was so often given a sauce — Cassell's list of acceptable partners (brown gravy, melted butter tinted with ketchup, tomato, sorrel, béchamel) is a catalogue of ways to give it savour. The anchovy-and-port version belongs to a long British habit of using cured fish as a seasoning rather than an ingredient: anchovy essence, anchovy butter and bottled anchovy sauce were pantry staples, and are often linked to the same taste for fermented fish condiments that produced early ketchups. Port in a meat sauce is likewise characteristic of the period. The stray "roast real" in the first line is most likely a typographical slip for "roast veal," preserved here as printed.