Home › The Principles of Cookery › VENISON, HASHED (another way)
VENISON, HASHED (another way)
The venison should be warmed in its own gravy, or in some made without seasoning, and only made hot, not quite boiled. If there is no fat left, cut some slices of mutton fat; set it on the fire with a little port wine and sugar, simmer till almost dry, then put it to the hash, and it will eat as well as the fat of venison.
A method for reheating leftover roast venison without drying it out, plus a trick for replacing the fat that a lean joint never had. The whole thing hinges on temperature: the meat is warmed through and never allowed to boil.
- Do not let it boilThe recipe insists the hash be "only made hot, not quite boiled". Already-cooked venison toughens quickly if held at a simmer. Keep the gravy below a simmer, slide the meat in off the heat, and give it a few minutes to warm through.
- "Its own gravy"The juices from the previous day's roast. A light unseasoned stock, or pan juices loosened with a splash of stock, does the same job; the recipe is explicit that any substitute gravy be made without seasoning, so season only at the end, if at all.
- Mutton fatCalled for because venison carries almost no intramuscular fat and reheats dry. Butchers rarely sell mutton fat now; lamb fat trimmed from a chop, or plain beef suet, behaves the same way. Duck fat or butter will enrich the hash but will not mimic the firm, waxy quality the original wanted.
- The port-and-sugar reductionSimmering the sliced fat with port and a little sugar "till almost dry" renders it down so it melts into the gravy rather than sitting on top as grease. Use a wide pan, keep it low, and stop before the sugar caramelises, since burnt sugar will spoil the dish.
- QuantitiesNone are given, which is normal for a leftovers recipe. As a working ratio: for a pound of sliced cooked venison, about a cup of gravy, an ounce of fat, two tablespoons of port and a scant teaspoon of sugar.
- Cutting the meatIn cookery of the period a hash of venison is usually sliced rather than finely chopped, though this recipe does not say. Thin slices will warm through before the surfaces overcook.
- ServingA pound of meat serves two or three. It wants something to absorb the gravy: mashed or forcemeat balls in the period manner, mashed potato or toast now, with redcurrant jelly alongside.
Hashed venison belongs to the large family of "rechauffe" dishes, the second-day cookery that a substantial household needed when a joint of game arrived whole and had to be eaten down over several days. Household cookery books of many periods devote considerable space to reheating cooked meat respectably, because throwing it away was not an option and serving it cold twice was thought a failure of skill. The mutton-fat substitution reflects a real problem with wild deer: the carcass fat is hard, tallowy and quick to taste rank, so cooks are often said to have discarded or masked it, and a lean haunch then had nothing to keep a hash succulent. Port with venison is an old and durable pairing, generally traced to the eighteenth-century English taste for fortified wine in game sauces, where the sweetness stands in for the fruit jellies served on the side.