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Ham Gravy Sauce
288. When a ham is almost done with, pick all the meat clean from the bone, leaving out any rusty part; beat the meat and the bone to a mash with a chopper and rolling-pin; put it in a saucepan with three spoonsful of gravy; set it over a slow fire, and stir it all the time, or it will stick to the bottom. When it has been on some time, put to it a small bundle of sweet-herbs, some pepper, and half a pint of beef-gravy; cover it up, and let it stew over a gentle fire. When it has a good flavour of the herbs, strain off the gravy. A little of this is an improvement to all gravies.
A frugal Victorian flavour base: the last scraps and bone of a ham, pounded and stewed down into a concentrated liquid used a spoonful at a time to lift other sauces. It is closer to a stock reduction than to a sauce you would serve on its own.
- The "rusty part"Rusty meant the greyish-yellow, rancid-tasting fat and surface meat that develops on a cut ham left standing. Trim it away without economy; it will make the whole extraction taste stale, and no amount of stewing improves it.
- Breaking down the boneThe chopper and rolling-pin were the period's way of exposing marrow and gelatine. A heavy cleaver, or asking the butcher to saw the bone into two or three pieces, does the same work with less risk to your worktop.
- Measurements"Three spoonsful" is undefined; if read as tablespoons it is roughly 45 ml, about enough to keep the meat from catching. Half a pint is 10 fl oz in imperial measure, so a scant 1¼ cups of unsalted beef stock reads correctly for a modern kitchen.
- Beef gravy in 1856Beef gravy -- In period usage this meant a plain unthickened brown meat stock, not a floured pan sauce. Use a good unsalted beef stock; anything already seasoned will over-salt the finished extract.
- Do not saltCured ham carries all the salt this needs, and reducing it concentrates that further. Taste only at the end, and season the dish it goes into rather than the extract itself.
- The hinge: keep it below a simmerThe hinge: keep the heat low -- The instruction to stir all the time and use a slow fire is the whole method. Ham scraps scorch readily, and a burnt bottom turns the entire batch bitter; keep it barely stewing, covered, and judge it by the recipe's own test -- when it has a good flavour of the herbs.
- Sweet herbsA bundle of sweet-herbs was a tied mixture of aromatic herbs, varying by household; parsley stalks, thyme and a bay leaf make a serviceable modern version. Pull it out as soon as the flavour reads clearly, since long steeping turns thyme and bay medicinal.
- Yield and keepingExpect a cup of strained liquid at most, which is the point of it. Chill it, lift off the set fat, then refrigerate three or four days or freeze in an ice-cube tray and drop a cube into gravies, pea soup or a lentil braise.