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Browning for Soups and Gravies
225. Put four ounces of lump sugar, a gill of water, and half an ounce of the finest butter into a small tosser, and set it over a gentle fire. Stir it with a wooden spoon till of a bright brown; then add half a pint of water; boil, skim, and when cold bottle and cork it close. Add to soup or gravy as much of this as will give a proper colour. Another. Put four ounces of pounded loaf sugar into a frying-pan, with one ounce of butter; set it over a clear fire and stir it; when it is one ounce of butter; set it over a clear fire and stir it; when it is frothy, and the sugar is dissolving, hold it higher till it becomes a deep brown, pour in by degrees a third of a pint of port-wine, add a little lemon -peel, salt, three spoonfuls of mushroom ketchup, a little mace, six cloves, an onion, and some allspice, boil all slowly for ten minutes, skim it, pour it into a basin, and when cold bottle for use. BROWNED FLOUR FOR COLOURING AND THICKENING SOUPS AND GRAVIES. 226. Browned Flour for Colouring and Thickening Soups and Gravies, may be made by spreading some flour upon tins in a cool oven, and carefully watching and turning it lest the edges should become too dark. Keep it in a dry place, and mix with butter when used.
This is caramel colouring — sugar cooked past the toffee stage until it is bitter and almost black, then let down with liquid so it pours. It adds colour and a faint bitterness, not sweetness.
- The hinge: how dark, and no darker"Bright brown" means the sugar has gone well past golden and has begun to lose its sweetness. A few seconds more and it turns acrid and will make the soup taste scorched; pull the pan off the heat while it is still moving toward the colour you want.
- Adding the waterCold water hitting caramel at 340-360F erupts violently in steam and sugar spatter. Warm the half pint first, hold the pan at arm's length, and pour it down the side in a thin stream rather than all at once.
- A gillA quarter of a pint, 5 fl oz. The half pint added later is 10 fl oz.
- A tosserA small pan used for tossing food over the heat. Any small heavy saucepan does; heavy is the point, since thin metal scorches sugar unevenly.
- Lump and pounded loaf sugarBoth are refined white sugar sold in solid form and broken or crushed for use. Ordinary granulated sugar is the direct substitute, weight for weight.
- The second versionPort, mushroom ketchup, mace, cloves, onion and allspice make this closer to a bottled brown sauce than a plain colouring. Mushroom ketchup is still made commercially; a dark soy or a reduced mushroom stock stands in tolerably.
- Keeping itThe plain sugar-and-water browning is fairly dilute; keep it corked and cool as the recipe directs and discard it if it clouds or smells sour. The port version contains onion and other savoury flavourings, so refrigerate it and use it within a few weeks.
- Browned flour: give the oven a numberA "cool oven" is usually reckoned at somewhere around 250-275F. Spread the flour thin, stir it from time to time as the recipe's warning about dark edges implies, and judge by colour rather than the clock. Browned flour has lost some thickening power, so allow rather more than you would of raw flour.
- Yield and dosageThe first recipe makes roughly a cup of dark syrup — enough to colour many gallons of soup over its life. Add it a half-teaspoon at a time and stir before judging, since the colour deepens as it disperses.