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The Melt (Which is extensively used even)
1186. Which is extensively used even in well-furnished kitchens, is also by the poor sometimes made available as follows:- It must be prepared by soaking it for three hours in salt and water, with the addition of a spoonful or two of vinegar, then let it be dried with a cloth, and made into a thick mass by tying together alternate layers of it and thin slices of bacon, with a seasoning of sage and onions, parsley, and a little of either thyme or marjoram, according to fancy. Put on the top a lump of dripping or lard, and bake, or put in a Dutch oven in front of the fire, dredging it well in either case. The price of a melt varies from 2d. to 6d. 1187. WHEN PIG'S, CALF'S, OR SHEEP'S LIVER OR KIDNEY can be obtained at a low price, they are superior to the above in flavour; but they are seldom to be bought for less than double or treble the price of beef liver.
A melt is a spleen — beef spleen, unless another animal is named — and it is the cheapest thing on a butcher's block then and now. The method is simple, but almost every term in it needs translating.
- What a melt isThe melt is the spleen, a dark, soft, slightly spongy organ with a tough membrane on the outside. Beef spleen is what is meant here; it is still sold in halal and Italian butchers, and needs ordering ahead almost everywhere else.
- Trim before you soakStrip off the outer membrane and any tubes or fat at the hilum. The membrane will not tenderise and turns leathery under heat.
- The soak is the hingeThree hours in salted water with a spoonful or two of vinegar draws out blood and tames the metallic, iron-heavy flavour that puts most people off spleen. Skipping it, or shortening it much, leaves the dish tasting of liver gone wrong. Change the water once if it darkens badly.
- "Made into a thick mass"Slice the drained spleen into broad flat pieces, layer them alternately with thin streaky bacon and the chopped herbs and onion, and tie the whole into a compact loaf with kitchen string. The bacon supplies the fat the spleen almost entirely lacks.
- Dutch ovenIn this period a Dutch oven is a tin reflector screen set open-side to the fire, not a lidded cast-iron pot. The recipe gives neither temperature nor time; bake in a moderate oven, basting with the melted dripping.
- DredgingTo dredge is to dust with flour from a shaker during cooking. Done two or three times as the fat runs, it gives a browned crust and thickens the pan juices.
- Texture and donenessSpleen firms up rather than softening, and long cooking makes it granular and dry. Take it out once the bacon is crisp and the juices run clear; carve in thin slices across the loaf.
- PricesTwopence to sixpence in mid-Victorian money marks this as among the cheapest animal food available. The following note adds that pig's, calf's or sheep's liver or kidney are better in flavour but seldom cost less than double or treble the price of beef liver.