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Browning for Gravy
kidney, as of any other meat prepared in the same way; so also it may be procured from the shank-end of legs of mutton that have been dressed, if much is not wanted. The raw shank-bones of mutton are a great improvement to the richness of gravy; but first it is necessary to soak them well, and scour them clean. Sheep's heads also make excellent gravy. 276. This is pretty nearly the same as for soup (see page 78); but the following is, perhaps, still better adapted for the purpose :- Put two ounces of moist sugar into an iron saucepan and boil till brown, then add half a pint of water, some pepper, salt, and mace, and about half a tea-spoonful of the gravy settled at the bottom of the dripping-pot. Boil for two or three minutes till it is of a good brown, and bottle it. Put half a tea-cupful of hot water, with a tea-spoonful of browning dissolved in it, into the dish with the meat, and put a tea-spoonful into the hashes.
Another. Put into a stewpan one lb. of good sugar, one oz. of butter, six cloves, twelve allspice, and boil it three minutes; then add a quart of boiling water, and keep stirring it for five minutes; pour it into a basin, and when cold clear away the scum, bottle, and keep it tightly corked.
GLAZE. 277. Glaze for Gravy is also pretty nearly the same as for soups (see page 77), or as follows:- Break the bones of several joints of cooked meat as small as possible; put them to boil in two quarts of water for two hours; then strain the bones out and boil about an hour, till reduced to rather more than a teacupful; flavour it with black pepper and salt, and add a little browning (par. 276). It should be dried in saucers till of the consistence nearly of India-rubber, and will in this state keep for three months or more.
To MAKE BROWN THICKENING FOR Sours, GRAVIES, &c. 278. Put into a stewpan a lump of butter, according to the quantity of thickening required. Melt it gently, then put flour enough to make a paste. Fry it on a slow fire until it becomes of a light brown colour, then pour it into an earthen pan for use. It will keep for some time. A good thickening for hashes and gravies may be made by melting very slowly half a pound of butter, and after skimming it, and allowing the sediment to settle, pour it clear off into a stew or frying pan, over a clear but gentle fire, and dredge very gradually into it nearly half a pound of well-dried flour-shaking the pan the while. Stir well and carefully till the whole is well mixed, and is fried a light brown colour. It must on no account be burnt in the slightest degree. This will keep in a jar for some little time, and may be added as required to soups or gravies while boiling. If to be used for white soups or sauces, the thickening must not acquire the least tinge of brown in the frying.
Three separate kitchen staples sit under one heading here: a caramel colouring ("browning"), a reduced meat glaze, and a fried flour thickening. All three are still worth making, and the first two are more or less impossible to buy at this quality.
- The hinge: caramel goes from brown to bitter in secondsSugar boiled dry to a deep brown is only a few degrees from burnt, and burnt caramel makes gravy acrid rather than rich. Work over moderate heat, judge by colour and smell, and have the water measured out ready to add the moment it is right.
- Adding water to hot caramelThe mixture will spit violently and the caramel will seize into a lump before it redissolves. Use a deep pan, pour the water in a little at a time at arm's length, and expect to simmer and stir a few minutes to smooth it out.
- "Moist sugar"Soft light brown sugar. Two ounces is about a quarter cup packed; the pound in the second version is roughly two and a quarter cups.
- Old liquid measuresA British half pint is 10 fl oz, so a generous cup and a quarter. A teacupful is roughly 5 to 6 fl oz. "Twelve allspice" means twelve whole berries.
- The dripping-pot sedimentThe dark jelly and meat solids that settle under cooled roasting fat. Skim the fat, scrape up the brown layer beneath, and use that; it is what gives this browning flavour rather than mere colour.
- Storing the glazeThe dried meat glaze is essentially a home-made meat glaze, seasoned here with pepper and salt. Despite the claim of three months, keep it refrigerated in a sealed jar for a couple of weeks, or freeze it in ice-cube trays and take a cube at a time.
- The brown thickening is a rouxNearly equal weights of butter and flour: half a pound of butter to nearly half a pound of flour. Reaching a genuine light brown over gentle heat can take 20 to 30 minutes of near-constant stirring, and clarifying the butter first, as directed, keeps the milk solids from scorching.
- How much to useRoughly an ounce of the finished roux thickens a cup of liquid to gravy consistency. Whisk it into simmering liquid a little at a time and let it boil a minute or two before judging; flour needs that time to swell.