Cassell's dictionary of cookery

She has then poured a little water into the dripping-pan, and given it a rinse, and poured this into a saucepan or frying-pan ; but as this appears to her too thin, she proceeds to thicken it in the following rough-and-ready way : — She first adds to the contents of her saucepan a tea-spoonful or more of ordinary flom-, this latter- being first mixed ^/ PRfiNCIPLES A ROAST LEG OF MUTTON. with a little cold water, and the whole is then briskly stirred with a spoon, brought to a boil, and poured over the meat. This is the ordinary elementary and most unscientific method of thickening gravy. There are many small families where the master of the house goes out early every morning, returning home to supper, and where but one joint is cooked a week — viz., the Sunday early dinner. The leg of mutton is the usual joint, and is invariably prepared in the way we have described. Now, there are thousands of persons who prefer a leg of mutton cooked this way to any other, just as they would prefer a lettuce with half a pint of vinegar with it, to one dressed with mayonnaise sauce from the hands of a Soyer. It is, perhaps, as well that all our tastes are not alike. The proper method of serving up the gravy is as follows : — Avoid two things, viz., flour and grease. Have you ever seen a spoon dipped in the gravy of a joint, and lifted '? On one side a film of fat hangs. Now, when I see this, the efiect on the appetite is exactly similar to a sudden lurch on board ship, when, after a little misgiving, you have taken your seat in the cabin at breakfast. We will suppose the leg, as before, sufficiently roasted. Then take the dripping-pan carefully, and pour off slowly from a corner of the dripping-pan all the fat into a small basin. At the bottom of the clear hot fat or dripping in the dripping-pan will be seen a brown sediment. This is really the concentrated gravy, and the cook's object is to pour off" all the grease and yet retain the sediment. With a little care this can be done easily. Next place the dripping-pan under the boilertap, and pour about half a pint or a little more of boiling water into it, and with an iron spoon simply wash off" all the brown streaks and spots on the dripping-pan. These brown marks are really gravy dried up from the action of the heat, and very much resemble in composition what is known as extract of meat. Having stirred up all the water thoroughly in the well of the dripping-pan, the gravy can now be poured through a strainer over the joint. This gravy should be clear and bright, and very nearly free from fat. Of course, some little amount of fat is unavoidable, and this will make its appearance in the shape of wafers during the cooling process which takes place during carving, but if proper care has been exercised the gravy will not be speedily covered with large cakes of fat, nor will that dreadful hanging from the spoon take place, with the result of setting you against your dinner almost before you commence. Some will say, however, " Ah, but you can't get the mutton nice and brown without flouring it at the finish!" First, I deny the fact if the fire is really a fierce one; secondly, if you use flour to brown the joint, I would suggest that it is quite possible to flour the joint without flouring the dripping-pan, by simply taking the latter away, and placing a tin under t