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Venison, Breast of, Stewed
Cut up the back ribs or the breast of venison into small neat pieces. Flour these, and fry them in butter with three or four sliced onions and a small quantity of bacon cut into dice. When the meat is lightly browned, drain away part of the fat, and pour over the meat a cupful of good stock and a glassful of port or claret, and add a small bunch of sweet herbs, half a tea-spoonful of anchovy, and a little pepper and salt. If the flavour is not objected to, a clove of garlic may be added, or the saucepan may be rubbed once or twice with a freshly-cut clove. Shake the stewpan over a gentle fire till the venison is tender. Thicken the gravy with a little brown thickening, and let it simmer till it has thrown up its grease. Put the meat on a dish, strain and skim the gravy, and pour it round the venison. Garnish with toasted sippets. A few stewed mushrooms will be a great improvement to this dish. When venison cannot be had, well-hung four-year-old mutton may be used instead. This stew may be served in a casserole of rice or potatoes. It is an excellent way of dressing venison which is lean and dry. Time to stew the venison, about two hours. Probable cost of venison, very uncertain.
A straightforward brown stew for the lean, bony cuts of a deer, written when venison arrived as a gift from an estate rather than a purchase. A few of its terms have shifted meaning since.
- Brown thickeningA browned flour-and-fat thickener of the kind Victorian kitchens often kept made up in advance; recipes vary between browned flour alone and a butter-and-flour roux cooked to a nut colour. A spoonful of brown roux made fresh in a small pan and whisked into the simmering gravy will do the job.
- AnchovyHalf a teaspoonful of "anchovy" means anchovy essence or a similar bottled sauce. Anchovy paste works in the same quantity; a mashed salted fillet is close enough and will dissolve into the gravy.
- Wine and stock measuresA glassful of port or claret is a wineglass, about 2 fl oz or a quarter cup. A cupful of stock is 8 fl oz. Both are modest; the pieces should not be submerged.
- Casserole of rice or potatoesNot a baked dish. It means a shaped border or wall of cooked rice or mashed potato piped or moulded on the platter, with the stew spooned inside.
- SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of toasted or fried bread, arranged round the edge of the dish. Cut them from a firm white loaf and add them at the last minute so they stay crisp.
- Heat and timingTwo hours suits breast and rib meat, which is full of connective tissue, but the recipe's "gentle fire" means a bare simmer rather than a boil. Venison carries very little intramuscular fat, so hard boiling tends to leave it dry and stringy however long it cooks.
- Skimming"simmer till it has thrown up its grease" means holding the gravy at a simmer until the remaining fat from the bacon and butter collects on the surface; the recipe's instruction to strain and skim before saucing is what keeps the finished gravy clean rather than greasy.
- Mutton substitute"Well-hung four-year-old mutton" is not sold in most places now. Lamb shoulder or neck will do, though it is fatter and sweeter; skim more aggressively and cut the port slightly.
- YieldNo quantity is given. Reckon on about 2 lb of trimmed meat off the bone for four people, with the stock and wine scaled as written.
Cassell's closes the entry with "probable cost of venison, very uncertain," and that line says more about late Victorian Britain than the recipe does. Venison was not a butcher's staple: deer were kept in private parks and on Scottish estates, and the meat is often said to have come to middle-class kitchens as a seasonal present from a landowner, though it was also sold by poulterers and in city markets, if irregularly and dear. A cookery dictionary might still have to tell the reader what to do with the awkward parts once the haunch and saddle had been roasted for company, and the breast and back ribs are exactly that -- lean, sinewy, and best served by long moist heat with bacon and butter supplying the fat the animal lacks. The port, anchovy and sweet herbs are the standard Georgian and Victorian dressing for dark game, and the suggested swap of well-hung four-year-old mutton reflects a period when older sheep were valued for a depth of flavour that modern spring lamb does not attempt.