Gravy for Joints

Ingredients

• a small onion
• a little dripping
• a sprig of parsley
• an inch or two of celery
• three or four peppercorns
• the rind of the bacon
• meat liquor or cold water

Method

1. 1

   Skin and cut the onion into rings.

2. 2

   Melt dripping in a saucepan, add the onion, and shake until brown but not burnt.

3. 3

   Add bones and scraps, parsley, celery, peppercorns, and bacon rind.

4. 4

   Pour in meat liquor or cold water, cover, and let stew gently for a couple of hours, skimming occasionally until reduced and flavored.

5. 5

   Strain and let any fat rise to the surface for removal.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The girl's own cookery book (1882) by Phillis Browne, page 5. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

GRAVY FOR JOINTS. tT can generally be told, from the look of the gravy that is served with a joint, whether or not the cook understands her business. If the gravy is fatty, or cold, or looks like thin light-coloured gruel, also if there is a great deal of it in the dish, 1 would advise you to resign yourself to your fate, and remember that man eats to live, he does not live to eat. If on the contrary the gravy is clear, bright, brown, free from fat and small in quantity, cheerfully leave yourself in the hands of the carver, for it is probable that you are about to partake of a well-cooked dinner. Gravy may either be made a little time before it is wanted, or it may be prepared from the brown sediment which is to be found in the dripping-tin under the joint. The latter method I do not recommend, but it is the more usual of the two, and therefore 1 will describe it first. It is well known that after meat has been hung before the fire for a while, fat begins to drop from it. In course of time this fat will be mixed with a sort of rich brown juice, and it is from this latter substance that the gravy is to be made. Now a great point in making gravy is to have it free from fat. Everyone knows what fatty gravy is like. So long as the meat and dish are hot, it is not very objectionable ; but as the joint and plates cool, the fat solidifies, and floats in cakes on the top of the gravy, and the taste of one of these is more easily imagined than described. The reason why it is undesirable to make gravy front the contents of the dripping-tin is, that it is so difficult to get rid of the fat in the tin, and to retain the sediment only. When, however, gravy has to be thus made, the fat must , be poured off from one corner of the tin ; this must be \done carefully and with a steady hand. When the sedi- t6 The Girl's Own Cookery Book. I ment only remains, the cook should pour in about a third ■ of a pint of boiling stock, or boiling water, if stock ; is not to be had. She should then scrape the tin well in order to dissolve any hard dry spots of gravy that there may be, and when these are melted she should pour a spoonful or two of the gravy roimd, but not over the meat in the dish, and the rest into a hot tureen. If the gravy has become cool whilst in the tin, it should be made hot in a saucepan before being strained into the dish, but it should not be allowed to boil. No greater mistake can be made than to pour a large quantity of gravy into the dish with the meat. In the first place it is very awkward for the carver ; for a mere slip of his knife may cause him to splash the gravy over the cloth. In the second place, unless a hot-water dish is used, the gravy will cool much more quickly in a large dish than it will in a small covered tureen. And more than all, made gravy will dilute the gravy that runs from the meat. When a joint is properly roasted, a gush of gravy follows the first cut of the knife, and then continues to flow from the meat while it is being carved. The majority of grown-up people would rather have a teaspoonful of this real juice of meat, than a quarter of a pint of the coloured water which is so often served as gravy. When the family is large, and gravy is much liked, a little made gravy must be used, because the joint, in all probability, would not yield as much as is wanted ; but it is a pity when that which it does yield is not made the most of. If gravy is provided apart from the joint, the entire contents of the dripping-tin can be poured into a basin. In a few hours, when the fat is cold, it will be found that the gravy has settled to the bottom and lies, a clear brown cake of jelly, which can be used without any of the fat the next time gravy is wanted. When I recommend that gravy should be prepared apart from the joint, 1 hope no one will think I am going to advise the purchase of gravy beef. Indeed I am not, for I should consider such a purchase extravagant and unnecessary. In all houses where meat is cooked there are little bones, trimmings, and scraps, from which excellent gravy can be prepared, costing nothing but a little care and Gravy for j'oinls. tliese, economical cookery is Suppose that gravy is wanted to-day for a joint of beef. Sometning was cooked for dinner yesterday, and it is almost certain that a bone or scraps of some kind were left from it. If the cook had forethought she would have put these on one side, cover them over to keep them dean and when there was a convenient opportunity that IS wdien the hre « as not in use, she would stew them for gravy. Perhaps bacon was served for breakfast or he* provided, in either case she would be particularly fortunate ; of course she would have pre- served the meat liquor, pouring it into a clean earthenware pan, and throwing a little muslin over it to keep it from _ She would first take a small onion, skin it and cut it into rings. She would melt a little drippin- in a sauce- pan, th^row in the onion and shake it over The fire until t was brown but not at all burnt. She would now put in the bones and scraps, together with a sprig of parsley an inch or two of celery, three or four peppeTcorns? and the rind of the bacon which had been scalded in boilin^ water and scraped with a blunt knife to make it quk? all she would pour meat liquor or cold water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.