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Venison, Shoulder of, Stewed
Bone the shoulder, and flatten it on a table. Season with a savoury powder made of two table-spoonfuls of salt, half a tea-spoonful of cayenne, half a tea-spoonful of pounded mace, and a tea-spoonful of powdered white sugar. Lay over the joint thin slices of the fat of a loin of mutton, roll tightly, and bind securely with tape. Place it in a stewpan as nearly as possible of its own size, pour over it as much stock as will cover it, let it boil, skim it, and simmer gently till tender. Turn it over when half done. Take it up, remove the tape, and lay the venison on a dish. Strain the gravy, thicken it with brown thickening, season with salt and cayenne, add a glassful of wine, and serve it with the meat. Time to stew the venison, three or four hours, according to size. Probable cost, very uncertain.
A classic braise of a lean, tough cut, written for a cook who expected to bone and roll meat without being told how. Nothing here is unsafe; most of the adjustment is in seasoning quantities and in the vocabulary.
- The hinge: fat and a snug panVenison shoulder has almost no intramuscular fat, so the barding and the tightly packed pan are the whole point — they keep the roll basted from within and the stock from reducing away around it. Use a pan the roll only just fits, or the liquid will need doubling and the gravy will be thin.
- Scale back the saltTwo tablespoons of salt for a boned shoulder is heavy by modern palates, especially as the gravy is seasoned with salt again at the end. About a tablespoon of fine salt rubbed over the flattened meat is closer to the mark.
- Fat of a loin of muttonSheep fat of that kind is not sold at supermarkets and is strongly flavoured. Thin sheets of pork back fat, or unsmoked streaky bacon laid edge to edge, do the same job with less mutton character.
- TapeCotton tape, a standard item of the period for binding rolled joints. Butcher's twine tied at 1-inch intervals works identically; tie firmly, since the roll shrinks as it cooks.
- Brown thickeningA period standby: flour browned in butter (or in the oven, dry) and kept in a jar. A brown roux of equal weights butter and flour, cooked to the colour of a hazelnut, is the same thing; about 1 oz of each per pint of strained gravy.
- A glassful of wineA Victorian wine glass is generally reckoned at about 2 fl oz, though for a gravy of this size 1/2 cup does no harm. Port, madeira or a robust red is in keeping; add it to the gravy and let it simmer a few minutes to lose the raw edge.
- Time and temperatureThree to four hours at a bare simmer suits wild shoulder. Farmed venison is younger and usually tender at 2 1/2 to 3 hours. A steady oven at 300F with the lid on is easier to control than a stovetop simmer, and the meat should be pierced without resistance before it comes out.
- YieldA boned and rolled shoulder serves roughly six to eight depending on its size, carved across the roll in thick slices with the gravy poured over.
Cassell's treats venison as something that arrives rather than something that is bought — hence the closing note that the cost is "very uncertain." Much British venison came from estates and was given as a gift or sent down from Scotland in season rather than bought at market, so a cook might face a whole carcass and had to know what to do with every part of it. The haunch was the roasting cut; the shoulder, sinewy and lean, was the one that needed boning, rolling with borrowed fat and long moist cooking. The savoury powder of salt, cayenne, mace and a little sugar belongs to an English tradition of dry-seasoning game before cooking, and the finishing glass of wine in the gravy is in keeping with the nineteenth-century taste for the sweet-sharp accompaniments — port, redcurrant, spiced claret — held to suit venison.