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Venison, Sauces For
In addition to the strong unflavoured gravy--a recipe for making which has already been given (see VENISON, GRAVY FOR)--venison is usually accompanied by either a sweet or a piquant sauce. Several recipes are here given. No. 1. Melt a little red currant jelly, and send it to table in a tureen; or, without melting it, turn it upon a glass dish, and serve cold. No. 2. Simmer the trimmings of the venison for half an hour in as much mutton gravy or water as will barely cover them. Strain and skim the liquor, and put it into a saucepan with a large table-spoonful of red currant jelly, a table-spoonful of powdered white sugar, and a large wine-glassful of port or claret. Let the sauce simmer gently till it is quite hot, and then serve. No. 3. Bruise an inch of stick cinnamon, and put it, with the rind of half a lemon, into a saucepan. Add a quarter of a pint of red currant jelly and a table-spoonful of port. Boil the sauce for five minutes, and serve. No. 4 (old-fashioned sauce). Clean two ounces of currants, and boil them for five minutes in half a pint of water. Add a glassful of port, half a tea-cupful of finely-grated bread-crumbs, an ounce of butter, and four cloves. Stir the sauce over a gentle fire for ten minutes, remove the cloves, and serve. Currants washed and dried are sometimes served instead of this sauce. No. 5. Put two ounces of powdered white sugar into a stone jar with a quarter of a pint of white wine vinegar. Heat the sauce till the sugar is dissolved, and serve. A glassful of claret and a pinch of cayenne may be added to this sauce if liked. No. 6. Put a quarter of a pint of strong unflavoured mutton gravy into a saucepan, and add a large glassful of claret, and a small glassful of raspberry vinegar. Simmer the sauce till it is hot, and serve.
Six accompaniments for roast venison, ranging from a dish of jelly to a spiced bread sauce. All are quick, and the only real skill is judging sweetness against the meat.
- The hinge: sweet against gameyEach of these is built to cut rich, dry venison, so taste and adjust at the end rather than following the sugar quantities blindly. Farmed venison today is milder and fattier than the park deer these were written for, and the full quarter-pint of currant jelly in No. 3 will taste like dessert with it.
- Imperial liquid measuresA quarter of a pint is 5 imperial fl oz, about two-thirds of a US cup. A wine-glassful is conventionally reckoned at about 2 fl oz and a "large" one somewhat more; a half tea-cupful of breadcrumbs in No. 4 is roughly 5 tablespoons, loosely packed.
- Currants, two kindsThe "red currant jelly" of Nos. 1-3 is the preserve made from fresh red currants. The two ounces of currants in No. 4 are dried Zante currants, the small black raisins. They are not interchangeable.
- Mutton gravyNo. 6 calls for the strong unflavoured mutton gravy of the companion entry (see VENISON, GRAVY FOR); No. 2 allows either mutton gravy or plain water. A good unsalted lamb or beef stock, reduced until it has body, stands in; avoid anything already seasoned with herbs, as the point is a neutral savoury base.
- The stone jar in No. 5Stoneware is non-reactive, which is the likely reason for it: vinegar attacks copper and can react with some metal linings. Any non-reactive pan -- stainless steel, enamel, glass -- does the same job. Heat only until the sugar dissolves; boiling drives off the vinegar's edge and leaves flat syrup.
- No. 4 will thicken fastGrated breadcrumbs and butter over ten minutes give something close to a spiced bread sauce. Stir often and keep the heat very low, or the crumbs catch. Fish out the four cloves as instructed — biting one is unpleasant.
- Raspberry vinegarIn No. 6 this most likely means the old sweetened raspberry vinegar or shrub rather than the sharp modern culinary vinegar. A modern raspberry vinegar with a teaspoon of sugar dissolved into it is the nearer equivalent.
- YieldQuantities vary: Nos. 3 and 5 make about a quarter of a pint, No. 4 rather more, and No. 1 is left open. They are served in a small tureen or sauceboat, a spoonful per plate, not ladled over the meat.
Sweet sauces with venison are old enough in English cooking to predate the sugar trade that made them cheap: medieval and Tudor kitchens served game with spiced, vinegar-sharpened sauces, and the tradition survived into the nineteenth century as red currant jelly and port. Cassell's, published for the late-Victorian middle-class household, gives six versions; venison might reach a kitchen as a haunch sent down from a Scottish estate or an English deer park, or be bought, and a cook might be handed one with no warning of its age or condition. The sourness in Nos. 5 and 6, and the cloves and cinnamon in Nos. 3 and 4, are doing the work that seasoning does for strong meat generally. No. 4 is labelled "old-fashioned" by the book itself, and its breadcrumb-and-dried-fruit base is essentially a survival of the medieval thickened sauce.