- Joined
- Dec 4, 2011
The following recipe for "beef balls" is from Mrs. N. K. M. Lee, 1854, but there were many similar ones. These are similar to what we'd call "meat balls," but not served with tomato sauce or pasta.
BEEF BALLS. Mince very finely a piece of tender beef, fat and lean; mince an onion, with some boiled parsley; add grated bread crumbs, and season with pepper, salt, grated nutmeg, and lemon-peel; mix all together, and moisten it with an egg beaten; roll it into balls; flour and fry them in boiling fresh dripping. Serve them with fried bread crumbs, or with a thickened brown gravy.
"Boiled parsley" is unusual, but shows up in some other recipes, and seems to indicate parsley leaves boiled briefly in water, the water discarded, and the leaves cut or chopped small.
Mrs. Beeton explains fried bread crumbs:
Cut the bread into thin slices, place them in a cool oven overnight, and when thoroughly dry and crisp, roll them down into fine crumbs. Put some lard, or clarified dripping, into a frying-pan; bring it to the boiling-point, throw in the crumbs, and fry them very quickly. Directly they are done, lift them out with a slice, and drain them before the fire from all greasy moisture. When quite crisp, they are ready for use. The fat they are fried in should be clear, and the crumbs should not have the slightest appearance or taste of having been, in the least degree, burnt.
Mrs. Lee has several recipes for brown gravy here.
Her observation that it keeps and that it's a "most convenient thing to have" (first recipe) shows that one was not necessarily expected to make gravy just for the beef balls. In fact, boiling them in "fresh dripping" means you roasted meat recently and caught what dripped off in a pan, so gravy might have come from that meal. If one doesn't have drippings, in other places she suggests butter as a substitute.
BEEF BALLS. Mince very finely a piece of tender beef, fat and lean; mince an onion, with some boiled parsley; add grated bread crumbs, and season with pepper, salt, grated nutmeg, and lemon-peel; mix all together, and moisten it with an egg beaten; roll it into balls; flour and fry them in boiling fresh dripping. Serve them with fried bread crumbs, or with a thickened brown gravy.
"Boiled parsley" is unusual, but shows up in some other recipes, and seems to indicate parsley leaves boiled briefly in water, the water discarded, and the leaves cut or chopped small.
Mrs. Beeton explains fried bread crumbs:
Cut the bread into thin slices, place them in a cool oven overnight, and when thoroughly dry and crisp, roll them down into fine crumbs. Put some lard, or clarified dripping, into a frying-pan; bring it to the boiling-point, throw in the crumbs, and fry them very quickly. Directly they are done, lift them out with a slice, and drain them before the fire from all greasy moisture. When quite crisp, they are ready for use. The fat they are fried in should be clear, and the crumbs should not have the slightest appearance or taste of having been, in the least degree, burnt.
Mrs. Lee has several recipes for brown gravy here.
Her observation that it keeps and that it's a "most convenient thing to have" (first recipe) shows that one was not necessarily expected to make gravy just for the beef balls. In fact, boiling them in "fresh dripping" means you roasted meat recently and caught what dripped off in a pan, so gravy might have come from that meal. If one doesn't have drippings, in other places she suggests butter as a substitute.
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