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The Gravy

A historical recipe from The Art of German Cooking and Baking Revised and Enlarged Edition, by Lina Meier (1922).

A historical recipe

The Art of German Cooking and Baking Revised and Enlarged Edition, by Lina Meier (1922). Project Gutenberg eBook #63883.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Its words name: curing or salting meat. Check current food-safety guidance before following this.

Source and licence

From The Art of German Cooking and Baking Revised and Enlarged Edition, by Lina Meier (1922). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #63883 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63883). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

Read the original Public domain in the USA

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.

Germany. Associated with Germany by the book is about German cookery (Cooking, German); the recipe itself names no place (confidence 0.4). "Associated with" means only that the evidence named here links this recipe to that place. A recipe isn't labelled as representing an entire country because a source associates it with one, and regional origins are kept where the source gives them.

  • Curing. Old curing amounts and salts may be unsafe. Use current tested guidance.

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Ingredients

Method

  1. 1½ tbsps.
  2. of flour 1 cup of broth Preparation: Wild geese are usually very tough, therefore take a young goose only.
  3. Clean and dress it well, let it soak in water for ½ hour, dry it and salt it inside and outside.
  4. The filling or stuffing is made by heating the butter, chopping the scalded onion and put into the butter together with the peeled and sliced apples, cut into ⅛ths.
  5. Let these cook half done, then add 1 pinch of white pepper, salt and 2 pulverized cloves, fill the goose with this and sew it up.
  6. Tie the slices of bacon across the breast of the goose and put into the oven with the water and ⅛ lb.
  7. of butter, basting it frequently.
  8. When the gravy gets too brown add more water.
  9. After it is well cooked, take off the string and bacon and serve it.
  10. The Gravy: Stir some flour into the broth, add water or more broth, cook a few minutes, strain and serve.
  11. No.
  12. 28—SMOKED GOOSE BREAST.
  13. The breast of one goose ⅜ lb.
  14. of salt 1 tsp.
  15. of saltpetre 1 tbsp.
  16. of sugar Preparation: The breast is cut from an undressed goose.
  17. Cut off the legs and the meat off the breast down to the bone.
  18. Be careful not to injure the outer skin.
  19. The small fillets are separated from the breast and it is rubbed well with ½ the quantity of salt, which has been mixed with the saltpetre and sugar until it dissolves.
  20. Replace the small fillets after salting them also, fold, and sew up the breast.
  21. Salt it well on the outside and place into a crock for 7 days, turning it twice a day and basting it well with the brine that collects.
  22. On the eighth day wrap in paper, place it between two boards, well weighted, and draw a string through the top end of fat and skin by which to hang it up.
  23. Hang it into a smoke house in medium smoke for 8 to 10 days.
  24. Then place again between two boards weighted down for a few days.
  25. By this process the fat becomes white and hard and the meat keeps better.