A QUICKLY-MADE GRAVY

The Book of Household Management · Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary) · 1861

Source: The Book of Household Management
Time: Cook: 30 min Total: 30 min
Status: success · extracted 13 days ago
Not a recipe: No

Ingredients (8)

1/2 lb. of shin of beef
1/2 onion ↝ Onions, raw [Vegetables and Vegetable Products]
1/4 carrot ↝ Carrots, raw [Vegetables and Vegetable Products]
2 or 3 sprigs of parsley and savoury herbs ↝ Parsley, raw [Not included in a food category]
a piece of butter about the size of a walnut ↝ Butter, stick, unsalted [Dairy and Egg Products]
cayenne and mace to taste ↝ Peppers, raw, NFS [Other vegetables and combinations]
cayenne and mace to taste ↝ Spices, mace, ground [Spices and Herbs]
3/4 pint of water ↝ Water, tap [Tap water]

Instructions (3)

Cut up the meat into very small pieces, slice the onion and carrot, and put them into a small saucepan with the butter.
Keep stirring over a sharp fire until they have taken a little colour, when add the water and the remaining ingredients.
Simmer for 1/2 hour, skim well, strain, and flavour, when it will be ready for use.

Original Text

A QUICKLY-MADE GRAVY.

434. INGREDIENTS.—1/2 lb. of shin of beef, 1/2 onion, 1/4 carrot, 2 or 3 sprigs of parsley and savoury herbs, a piece of butter about the size of a walnut; cayenne and mace to taste, 3/4 pint of water.

Mode.—Cut up the meat into very small pieces, slice the onion and carrot, and put them into a small saucepan with the butter. Keep stirring over a sharp fire until they have taken a little colour, when add the water and the remaining ingredients. Simmer for 1/2 hour, skim well, strain, and flavour, when it will be ready for use.

Time.—1/2 hour. Average cost, for this quantity, 5d.

A HUNDRED DIFFERENT DISHES.—Modern housewives know pretty well how much care, and attention, and foresight are necessary in order to serve well a little dinner for six or eight persons,—a dinner which will give credit to the ménage, and satisfaction and pleasure to the guests. A quickly-made gravy, under some circumstances that we have known occur, will be useful to many housekeepers when they have not much time for preparation. But, talking of speed, and time, and preparation, what a combination of all these must have been necessary for the feast at the wedding of Charles VI. of France. On that occasion, as Froissart the chronicler tells us, the art of cooking, with its innumerable paraphernalia of sauces, with gravy, pepper, cinnamon, garlic, scallion, brains, gravy soups, milk potage, and ragoûts, had a signal triumph. The skilful chef-de-cuisine of the royal household covered the great marble table of the regal palace with no less than a hundred different dishes, prepared in a hundred different ways.

Notes

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