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Gravy Stock
Put one pound of lean minced beef into a flat stewpan, place the cover on and toss the pan over the fire until the meat is browned. Pour over two breakfast cupfuls of hot water and let this boil until half the liquor has evaporated; then pour in another half pint of water and add a thick slice of lean ham, one onion, a bunch of sweet herbs, a little ground mace, and salt to taste. Let this boil until the liquor is again reduced to less than half a pint, then pass the liquor through a strainer or squeeze it in a broth napkin, and when all the liquor possible is squeezed out, set it away to cool. There should not be any fat, but if there should happen to be any, it will collect and harden at the top. This gravy stock is useful at all times for making gravy at a minute's notice.
A concentrated brown meat essence rather than a stock in the modern sense — closer to a glace than to a broth. The whole point is reduction, so resist the urge to top up with water.
- Breakfast cupfulA breakfast cup is larger than a teacup, roughly 8 to 10 fl oz. Two of them is about a pint; the later "half pint" is one US cup. Precision matters less than the reduction cues, which the recipe gives clearly.
- Browning without fatTossing minced beef in a covered pan draws out its own juices first, which then boil away and let the meat fry in its rendered fat. Use a heavy pan over medium-high heat and expect to work the pan for several minutes until the fond on the bottom is deep brown but not black — burnt fond makes the finished stock bitter.
- "Flat stewpan"A wide, shallow pan with a lid — a modern sauté pan or straight-sided skillet. Width is the point: it gives surface area for both browning and rapid evaporation.
- A bunch of sweet herbsThe period shorthand for parsley, thyme and a bay leaf tied together, sometimes with marjoram or savory. Tie it with string so it lifts out cleanly.
- MaceThe lacy outer covering of the nutmeg, warmer and less sweet than nutmeg itself. A pinch is plenty; ground mace loses its aroma fast, so check that the jar is not years old.
- The hamA thick slice of lean smoked or dry-cured ham, added for salt and depth. Salt at the very end, or not at all — the liquid is reduced by roughly three quarters and the ham's salt concentrates with it.
- StrainingThe "broth napkin" is a cloth twisted to wring out every drop. A double layer of cheesecloth over a sieve does the same. Squeezing gives a cloudier result than a gentle strain, which is of no consequence in a gravy base.
- Yield and keepingExpect somewhere between half a cup and a cup of intensely savoury liquid, enough to enrich gravy for four to six servings. Made without bones it may thicken or lightly jelly when cold rather than set firm. Refrigerate and use within three or four days, or freeze in ice-cube trays.
Gravy stock of this kind belonged to a kitchen where sauce was built from scratch several times a day and a cook needed a reserve of concentrated flavour on hand. French professional cookery knew the same idea, long before Escoffier set it down, as glace de viande — meat stock reduced until it sets — and English household manuals of the nineteenth century carried simpler versions under names like gravy essence or brown gravy stock. Oscar Tschirky, who ran the Waldorf's dining rooms from 1893 and put his name to this 1896 collection, was maître d'hôtel rather than chef, and the book gathers the working formulas of a large hotel brigade alongside dishes for the domestic cook. The closing line — "useful at all times for making gravy at a minute's notice" — gives away the intent: this is mise en place, the hotel habit of preparing in advance what service will not allow time for later.