The Book of Household Management Part 77

_Seasonable_ all the year, but best in winter.

SLICED AND BROILED BEEF--a Pretty Dish (Cold Meat Cookery).

664. INGREDIENTS.--A few slices of cold roast beef, 4 or 5 potatoes, a thin batter, pepper and salt to taste.

_Mode_.--Pare the potatoes as you would peel an apple; fry the parings in a thin batter seasoned with salt and pepper, until they are of a light brown colour, and place them on a dish over some slices of beef, which should be nicely seasoned and broiled.

_Time_.--5 minutes to broil the meat.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

SPICED BEEF (to Serve Cold).

665. INGREDIENTS.--14 lbs. of the thick flank or rump of beef, 1/2 lb.

of coa.r.s.e sugar, 1 oz. of saltpetre, 1/4 lb. of pounded allspice, 1 lb.

of common salt.

_Mode_.--Rub the sugar well into the beef, and let it lay for 12 hours; then rub the saltpetre and allspice, both of which should be pounded, over the meat, and let it remain for another 12 hours; then rub in the salt. Turn daily in the liquor for a fortnight, soak it for a few hours in water, dry with a cloth, cover with a coa.r.s.e paste, put a little water at the bottom of the pan, and bake in a moderate oven for 4 hours.

If it is not covered with a paste, be careful to put the beef into a deep vessel, and cover with a plate, or it will be too crisp. During the time the meat is in the oven it should be turned once or twice.

_Time_.--4 hours. _Average cost_, 7d. per lb.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

BAKING MEAT.--Baking exerts some unexplained influence on meat, rendering it less savoury and less agreeable than meat which has been roasted. "Those who have travelled in Germany and France,"

writes Mr. Lewis, one of our most popular scientific authors, "must have repeatedly marvelled at the singular uniformity in the flavour, or want of flavour, of the various 'roasts' served up at the _table-d'hote_." The general explanation is, that the German and French meat is greatly inferior in quality to that of England and Holland, owing to the inferiority of pasturage; and doubtless this is one cause, but it is not the chief cause. The meat is inferior, but the cooking is mainly at fault. The meat is scarcely ever _roasted_, because there is no coal, and firewood is expensive. The meat is therefore _baked;_ and the consequence of this baking is, that no meat is eatable or eaten, with its own gravy, but is always accompanied by some sauce more or less piquant. The Germans generally believe that in England we eat our beef and mutton almost raw; they shudder at our gravy, as if it were so much blood.

STEWED BEEF or RUMP STEAK (an Entree).

666. INGREDIENTS.--About 2 lbs. of beef or rump steak, 3 onions, 2 turnips, 3 carrots, 2 or 3 oz. of b.u.t.ter, 1/2 pint of water, 1 teaspoonful of salt, 1/2 do. of pepper, 1 tablespoonful of ketchup, 1 tablespoonful of flour.

_Mode_.--Have the steaks cut tolerably thick and rather lean; divide them into convenient-sized pieces, and fry them in the b.u.t.ter a nice brown on both sides. Cleanse and pare the vegetables, cut the onions and carrots into thin slices, and the turnips into dice, and fry these in the same fat that the steaks were done in. Put all into a saucepan, add 1/2 pint of water, or rather more should it be necessary, and simmer very gently for 2-1/2 or 3 hours; when nearly done, skim well, add salt, pepper, and ketchup in the above proportions, and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour mixed with 2 of cold water. Let it boil up for a minute or two after the thickening is added, and serve. When a vegetable-scoop is at hand, use it to cut the vegetables in fanciful shapes, and tomato, Harvey's sauce, or walnut-liquor may be used to flavour the gravy. It is less rich if stewed the previous day, so that the fat may be taken off when cold; when wanted for table, it will merely require warming through.

_Time_.--3 hours. Average cost, 1s. per lb.

_Sufficient_ for 4 or 5 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

STEWED BEEF AND CELERY SAUCE (Cold Meat Cookery).

667. INGREDIENTS.--3 roots of celery, 1 pint of gravy, No. 436, 2 onions sliced, 2 lbs. of cold roast or boiled beef.

_Mode_.--Cut the celery into 2-inch pieces, put them in a stew-pan, with the gravy and onions, simmer gently until the celery is tender, when add the beef cut into rather thick pieces; stew gently for 10 minutes, and serve with fried potatoes.

_Time_.--From 20 to 25 minutes to stew the celery.

_Average cost_, exclusive of the meat, 6d.

_Seasonable_ from September to January.

STEWED BEEF WITH OYSTERS (Cold Meat Cookery).

668. INGREDIENTS.--A few thick steaks of cold ribs or sirloin of beef, 2 oz. of b.u.t.ter, 1 onion sliced, pepper and salt to taste, 1/2 gla.s.s of port wine, a little flour to thicken, 1 or 2 dozen oysters, rather more than 1/2 pint of water.

_Mode_.--Cut the steaks rather thick, from cold sirloin or ribs of beef; brown them lightly in a stewpan, with the b.u.t.ter and a little water; add 1/2 pint of water, the onion, pepper, and salt, and cover the stewpan closely, and let it simmer very gently for 1/2 hour; then mix about a teaspoonful of flour smoothly with a little of the liquor; add the port wine and oysters, their liquor having been previously strained and put into the stewpan; stir till the oysters plump, and serve. It should not boil after the oysters are added, or they will harden.

_Time_.--1/2 hour. _Average cost_, exclusive of the meat, 1s. 4d.

_Seasonable_ from September to April.

STEWED BRISKET OF BEEF.

669. INGREDIENTS.--7 lbs. of a brisket of beef, vinegar and salt, 6 carrots, 6 turnips, 6 small onions, 1 blade of pounded mace, 2 whole allspice pounded, thickening of b.u.t.ter and flour, 2 tablespoonfuls of ketchup; stock, or water.

_Mode_.--About an hour before dressing it, rub the meat over with vinegar and salt; put it into a stewpan, with sufficient stock to cover it (when this is not at hand, water may be subst.i.tuted for it), and be particular that the stewpan is not much larger than the meat. Skim well, and when it has simmered very gently for 1 hour, put in the vegetables, and continue simmering till the meat is perfectly tender. Draw out the bones, dish the meat, and garnish either with tufts of cauliflower or braised cabbage cut in quarters. Thicken as much gravy as required, with a little b.u.t.ter and flour; add spices and ketchup in the above proportion, give one boil, pour some of it over the meat, and the remainder send in a tureen.

_Time_.--rather more than 3 hours. _Average cost_, 7d. per lb.

_Sufficient_ for 7 or 8 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

_Note_.--The remainder of the liquor in which the beef was boiled may be served as a soup, or it may be sent to table with the meat in a tureen.

STEWED RUMP OF BEEF.

670. INGREDIENTS.--1/2 rump of beef, sufficient stock to cover it (No.

105), 4 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, 2 tablespoonfuls of ketchup, 1 large bunch of savoury herbs, 2 onions, 12 cloves, pepper and salt to taste, thickening of b.u.t.ter and flour, 1 gla.s.s of port wine.

_Mode_.--Cut out the bone, sprinkle the meat with a little cayenne (this must be sparingly used), and bind and tie it firmly up with tape; put it into a stewpan with sufficient stock to cover it, and add vinegar, ketchup, herbs, onions, cloves, and seasoning in the above proportion, and simmer very gently for 4 or 5 hours, or until the meat is perfectly tender, which may be ascertained by piercing it with a thin skewer. When done, remove the tape, lay it into a deep dish, which keep hot; strain and skim the gravy, thicken it with b.u.t.ter and flour, add a gla.s.s of port wine and any flavouring to make the gravy rich and palatable; let it boil up, pour over the meat, and serve. This dish may be very much enriched by garnishing with forcemeat b.a.l.l.s, or filling up the s.p.a.ce whence the bone is taken with a good forcemeat; sliced carrots, turnips, and onions boiled with the meat, are also a great improvement, and, where expense is not objected to, it may be glazed. This, however, is not necessary where a good gravy is poured round and over the meat.

_Time_.--1/2 rump stewed gently from 4 to 5 hours.

_Average cost_, 10d. per lb. _Sufficient_ for 8 or 10 persons.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

_Note_.--A stock or gravy in which to boil the meat, may be made of the bone and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, by boiling them with water, and adding carrots, onions, turnips, and a bunch of sweet herbs. To make this dish richer and more savoury, half-roast the rump, and afterwards stew it in strong stock and a little Madeira. This is an expensive method, and is not, after all, much better than a plainer-dressed joint.

THE BARON OF BEEF.--This n.o.ble joint, which consisted of two sirloins not cut asunder, was a favourite dish of our ancestors.

It is rarely seen nowadays; indeed, it seems out of place on a modern table, as it requires the grim boar's head and Christmas pie as supporters. Sir Walter Scott has described a feast at which the baron of beef would have appeared to great advantage.