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Using Pettit's Cider and Fruit Prkskrvative

A steak served with a thickened gravy made from dripping, flour, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Using Pettit's Cider and Fruit Prkskrvative

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the steak

  1. Heat the dripping in a pan until very hot.

  2. Add the steak and brown it quickly on one side.

  3. Turn the steak, cover the pan closely, and finish cooking.

  4. Remove the steak to a hot platter.

Make the gravy

  1. Pour 1 cup of hot water into the pan.

  2. Mix 1 tablespoon of flour with a little water to thicken the gravy.

  3. Boil the gravy and pour it over the steak before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Dripping
Fat that conducts heat for browning the steak and adds rich flavour.
Steak
Main protein, which browns on the surface and cooks through gently under cover.
Flour
Starch that thickens the hot liquid into a smooth gravy as it boils.

The step that matters

Browning the steak quickly in very hot dripping. Intense surface heat browns the steak through the Maillard reaction, building flavour and colour. If the fat is not hot enough, the steak steams and turns grey, and the gravy built from the pan drippings loses depth.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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