Essence of Ham

Name: Essence of Ham
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: 3 or 4 sprigs each of parsley and thyme; 1 quart (1 l.) very good brown or white stock; 4 oz. (120 g.) mushrooms, coarsely chopped; 6 cloves; 3 or 4 carrots, cut into 1-in. (2½-cm.) pieces; 3 onions, peeled and sliced; a little butter; 2–3 lb. (1–1½ k.) lean raw ham cut into 1-in. (2½-cm.) pieces

Preparation info

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Cookery of England

By Elisabeth Ayrton

Published 1975

About

This extravagant but splendid basis for a rich brown sauce, particularly espagnole, was considered almost essential to really good cooking from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Here is how they made it in 1833 at the Thatched House Tavern.

Ingredients

2–3 lb. (1–1½ k.) lean raw ham cut into 1-in. (2½-cm.) pieces
3 or 4 carrots, cut i

Europe
United Kingdom
Sauce
England
Gluten-free

Method

Put the butter in a saucepan and melt gently. Add the ham, carrots and onions and fry, turning, till beginning to brown. Be careful they do not stick. Pour on the stock and add the other ingredients. Cover closely and simmer gently for 2–3 hours. Do not let it reduce by more than a quarter. Strain and keep in refrigerator or deep-freeze to be used in any brown gravy or sauce, or added to the gr