Home › G › Gravies, General Stock for
Gravies, General Stock for
By the addition of various store sauces, thickening and flavouring, good stock may be converted into good gravies. It should be borne in mind, however, that the goodness and strength of spices, wines, flavourings, &c., evaporate, and that they lose a great deal of their fragrance if added to the gravy a long time before they are wanted. If this point be attended to, a saving of one half the quantity of these GRAVY, BEEF. ingredients will be effected, as, with long boiling, the flavour almost entirely passes away. The shank-bones of mutton, previviously well soaked, will be found a great assistance in enriching gravies; a kidney or melt, beef skirt, trimmings of meat, &c. &c., answer very well when only a small quantity is wanted, and a good gravy need not necessarily beso very expensive; for economically prepared dishes are often-times found as savoury and wholesome as dearer ones. The cook should also remember that the fragrance of gravies should not be overpowered by too much spice, or any strong essences, GRAVY STRAINERS. and that they should always be warmed in a bain marie, after they are flavoured, or else in a jar or jug placed in a saucepan full of boiling water. The remains of roastmeat gravy should always be saved; as when no meat is at hand, a very nice gravy in haste may be made from it, and when added to hashes, regoûts, &c., is a great improvement.
Gravy, A Good Beef (for Poultry, Game, &c.) - INGREDIENTS. - 1/2 lb. of lean beef, 1/2 pint of cold water, 1 shalot or small onion, 1/22 a teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper, 1 tablespoonful of Harvey's sauce mushroom ketchup, 1/2 a teaspoonful of arrowroot. AVERAGE COST, 8d. per pint. Cut up the beef into small pieces, and put it, with the water, into a stewpan. Add the shalot and seasoning, and simmer gently for 3 hours, taking care that it does not boil fast. A short time before it is required, take the arrowroot, and having mixed it with a little cold water, pour it into the gravy, which keep stirring, adding the Harvey's sauce, and just letting it boil.
Strain off the gravy in a tureen, and serve very hot.
TIME.-3 hours.
Gravy, Beef, A Quickly Made.
- INGREDIENTS. - 1/2 lb. of shin of beef, onion, carrot, 2 or 3 sprigs of parsley.
GRAVY, BROWN. and savoury herbs, a piece of butter about the size of a walnut; cayenne and mace to taste, 1/4 pint of water. AVERAGE COST, 6d.
Cut up the meat into very small pieces, slice the onion and carrot, and put them into a small saucepan with the butter.
Keep stirring over a sharp fire until they have taken a little colour, when add the water and the remaining ingredients. Simmer, for hour, skim well, strain and flavour , when it will be ready for use.
TIME. hour.
Two gravies built on beef and water rather than on a roux, plus Mrs Beeton's general rules for turning stock into gravy. The governing point is at the top: flavourings go in at the end, not the beginning.
- Add flavourings lateWine, spice and bottled sauces lose their aroma with long simmering, which is why the text says half the quantity will do if they go in near the end. Season the base, simmer, then correct with sauce and spice in the last few minutes.
- Harvey's sauceA spiced anchovy-and-soy condiment of the period, no longer sold. Worcestershire sauce is the closest widely available stand-in; mushroom ketchup is still made by a few British firms and gives the darker, earthier note.
- Arrowroot as thickenerHalf a teaspoon slaked in cold water thickens a half-pint of gravy to a light glossy coating, no more. Bring it just to a boil to clear it, then stop — prolonged boiling breaks arrowroot down and the gravy thins again.
- ShalotThe old spelling of shallot. The recipe allows a small onion in its place.
- Melt, skirt, shank-bonesMelt is spleen and skirt is the muscle from the diaphragm area, both butcher's oddments now hard to buy over the counter. Mutton shank bones, oxtail or a piece of shin do the same enriching work.
- Warming the finished gravyThe bain marie instruction is not fussiness — direct heat after thickening will catch the arrowroot on the base and dull the flavourings. A jug standing in a pan of hot water holds it at serving temperature.
- Yield and costCost -- The "8d. per pint" is a Victorian price note, not a measurement.
- Simmer, do not boil"Take care that it does not boil fast" matters for clarity: a hard boil emulsifies fat and fine particles into the liquid and no amount of straining will bring it back clear.
Mrs Beeton's household model is often said to have assumed a stockpot as a standing fixture of the kitchen, replenished with bones and trimmings, from which gravies, soups and sauces were all drawn. What is striking in this entry is the frankness about economy: melt, skirt, kidney and soaked shank-bones were cheap offal and butcher's oddments, and she is explicit that a gravy built from them can be as savoury as a dearer one. Harvey's sauce, named in the beef gravy, was one of a family of commercial spiced-anchovy bottled sauces that flooded British kitchens in the nineteenth century alongside mushroom ketchup and Worcestershire; their appeal was exactly the shortcut described here, a concentrated savoury note stirred in at the last minute. The instruction to hold finished gravy in a bain marie reflects a service kitchen habit that had filtered down into the middle-class household, where dinner was increasingly sent to table in courses and sauces had to wait without spoiling.