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To Dress the Same, Called Cecils
540. Mince any kind of meat, crumbs of bread, a good deal of onion, some anchovies, lemon-peel, salt, nutmeg, chopped parsley, pepper, and a bit of butter warm, and mix these over a fire for a few minutes; when cool enough, make them up into balls of the size and shape of a turkey's egg, with an egg; sprinkle them with fine crumbs, and then fry them of a yellow brown, and serve with gravy as before directed for beef-olives.
A leftovers dish given no quantities at all, in the manner of most early nineteenth-century receipts. The proportions below will get you there without changing the method.
- Working proportionsFor about 1 lb of cooked minced meat, allow 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs, 1 medium onion finely chopped, 2 anchovy fillets mashed, the grated zest of half a lemon, 2 tablespoons parsley, a good grating of nutmeg, and 1 tablespoon butter. One egg binds this amount; a second may be needed if the mince is dry.
- The meat is already cookedThe meat is almost certainly already cooked -- the receipt says only "any kind of meat", but the heading "to dress the same", the few minutes over the fire and the light frying all point to the remains of a roast or boiled joint, which is how cecils were generally made. Raw mince will shed liquid, refuse to hold its shape, and need longer frying than the crumb coating will easily survive.
- The hinge is the bindingMix over the heat only a few minutes, until the butter has coated everything and the onion has lost its rawness, then cool properly before the egg goes in. Egg added to a hot mixture scrambles and the balls fall apart in the pan.
- SizeA turkey's egg is appreciably larger than a hen's, roughly 2 1/2 inches long. Reckon on eight to ten balls from a pound of mince, enough for four with gravy and potatoes.
- AnchoviesThese are the salt in the dish as much as a flavouring. Salted anchovy fillets or a teaspoon of anchovy paste both work; taste before adding further salt.
- FryingShallow-fry in butter or clarified fat over a moderate heat, turning to colour all sides. The book gives no temperature. "Yellow brown" should take only a few minutes: if the meat is already cooked, you are only setting the crust.
- CrumbingThe mixture itself contains crumbs, so the outer sprinkling needs to be dry and fine to crisp. Chill the shaped balls for twenty minutes before frying and the coating will stay put.
- The gravyThe beef-olive gravy referred to is a plain brown meat gravy; that receipt is not given here, so any well-flavoured meat gravy serves.