The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) Part 20

Boiling or stewing meat, if fresh, should be put into _boiling_ water, closely covered and boiled _slowly_, allowing twenty minutes to each pound, and, when partly cooked, or when it begins to get tender, salted, adding spices and vegetables.

Salt meats should be covered with _cold_ water, and require thirty minutes _very slow_ boiling, from the time the water boils, for each pound; if it is very salt, pour off the first water and put it in another of boiling water, or it may be soaked one night in cold water.

After meat commences to boil the pot should _never stop_ simmering and always be replenished from the _boiling_ tea-kettle.

Frying may be done in two ways. One method, which is most generally used, is by putting one ounce or more (as the case requires) of beef drippings, lard or b.u.t.ter into a frying pan, and when at the _boiling point_ lay in the meat, cooking both sides a nice brown. The other method is to _completely immerse_ the article to be cooked in sufficient _hot_ lard to cover it, similar to frying doughnuts.

Broiled meats should be placed over clear, red coals free from smoke, giving out a good heat, but not too brisk, or the meat will be hardened and scorched; but if the fire is dead the gravy will escape and drop upon the coals, creating a blaze, which will blacken and smoke the meat. Steaks and chops should be turned often, in order that every part should be evenly done--never sticking a fork into the lean part, as that lets the juices escape; it should be put into the outer skin or fat. When the meat is sufficiently broiled it should be laid on a _hot_ dish and seasoned. The best pieces for steak are the porterhouse, sirloin and rump.

THAWING FROZEN MEAT, ETC.

If meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, or any other article of food, when found frozen, is thawed by putting it into _warm water_ or placing it before the fire, it will most certainly spoil by that process, and be rendered unfit to eat. The only way to thaw these things is by immersing them in _cold_ water. This should be done as soon as they are brought in from market, that they may have time to be well thawed before they are cooked. If meat that has been frozen is to be boiled, put it on in cold water. If to be roasted, begin by setting it at a distance from the fire, for if it should not chance to be thoroughly thawed all through to the centre, placing it at first too near the fire will cause it to spoil. If it is expedient to thaw the meat or poultry the night before cooking, lay it in cold water early in the evening, and change the water at bed-time. If found crusted with ice in the morning, remove the ice, and put the meat in fresh cold water, letting it lie in it till wanted for cooking.

Potatoes are injured by being frozen. Other vegetables are not the worse for it, provided they are always thawed in cold water.

TO KEEP MEAT FROM FLIES.

Put in sacks, with enough straw around it so the flies cannot reach through. Three-fourths of a yard of yard-wide muslin is the right size for the sack. Put a little straw in the bottom, then put in the ham and lay straw in all around it; tie it tightly and hang it in a cool, dry place. Be sure the straw is all around the meat, so the flies cannot reach through to deposit the eggs. (The sacking must be done early in the season before the fly appears.) Muslin lets the air in and is much better than paper. Thin muslin is as good as thick, and will last for years if washed when laid away when emptied.

_National Stockman._

ROAST BEEF.

One very essential point in roasting beef is to have the oven well heated when the beef is first put in; this causes the pores to close up quickly, and prevents the escape of the juices.

Take a rib piece or loin roast of seven or eight pounds. Wipe it thoroughly all over with a clean wet towel. Lay it in a dripping-pan, and baste it well with b.u.t.ter or suet fat. Set it in the oven. Baste it frequently with its own drippings, which will make it brown and tender. When partly done season with salt and pepper, as it hardens any meat to salt it when raw, and draws out its juices, then dredge with sifted flour to give it a frothy appearance. It will take a roast of this size about two hours' time to be properly done, leaving the inside a little rare or red--half an hour less would make the inside quite rare. Remove the beef to a heated dish, set where it will keep hot; then skim the drippings from all fat, add a tablespoonful of sifted flour, a little pepper and a teacupful of boiling water. Boil up once and serve hot in a gravy boat.

Some prefer the clear gravy without the thickening. Serve with mustard or grated horse-radish and vinegar.

YORKSHIRE PUDDING.

This is a very nice accompaniment to a roast of beef; the ingredients are, one pint of milk, four eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately, one teaspoonful of salt, and two teaspoonfuls of baking powder sifted through two cups of flour. It should be mixed very smooth, about the consistency of cream. Regulate your time when you put in your roast, so that it will be done half an hour or forty minutes before dishing up. Take it from the oven, set it where it will keep hot. In the meantime have this pudding prepared. Take two common biscuit tins, dip some of the drippings from the dripping-pan into these tins, pour half of the pudding into each, set them into the hot oven, and keep them in until the dinner is dished up; take these puddings out at the last moment and send to the table hot. This I consider much better than the old way of baking the pudding under the meat.

BEEFSTEAK. No. 1.

The first consideration in broiling is to have a clear, glowing bed of coals. The steak should be about three-quarters of an inch in thickness, and should be pounded only in extreme cases, _i.e._, when it is cut _too_ thick and is "stringy." Lay it on a b.u.t.tered gridiron, turning it often, as it begins to drip, attempting nothing else while cooking it. Have everything else ready for the table; the potatoes and vegetables dished and in the warming closet. Do not season it until it is done, which will be in about ten to twelve minutes. Remove it to a warm platter, pepper and salt it on both sides and spread a liberal lump of b.u.t.ter over it. Serve at once while hot. No definite rule can be given as to the _time_ of cooking steak, individual tastes differ so widely in regard to it, some only liking it when well done, others so rare that the blood runs out of it. The best pieces for broiling are the porterhouse and sirloin.

BEEFSTEAK. No. 2.

Take a smooth, thick-bottomed frying pan, scald it out with hot water, and wipe it dry; set it on the stove or range, and when _very_ hot, rub it over the bottom with a rag dipped in b.u.t.ter; then place your steak or chops in it, turn often until cooked through, take up on a warm platter, and season both sides with salt, pepper and b.u.t.ter.

Serve hot.

Many prefer this manner of cooking steak rather than broiling or frying in a quant.i.ty of grease.

BEEFSTEAK AND ONIONS.

Prepare the steak in the usual way. Have ready in a frying pan a dozen onions cut in slices and fried brown in a little beef drippings or b.u.t.ter. Dish your steak, and lay the onions thickly over the top.

Cover and let stand five minutes, then send to the table hot.

BEEFSTEAK AND OYSTERS.

Broil the steak the usual way. Put one quart of oysters with very little of the liquor into a stewpan upon the fire; when it comes to a boil, take off the sc.u.m that may rise, stir in three ounces of b.u.t.ter mixed with a tablespoonful of sifted flour, let it boil one minute until it thickens, pour it over the steak. Serve hot.

_Palace Hotel, San Francisco._

TO FRY BEEFSTEAKS.

Beefsteak for frying should be cut much thinner than for broiling.

Take from the ribs or sirloin and remove the bone. Put some b.u.t.ter or nice beef dripping into a frying pan and set it over the fire, and when it has boiled and become hot lay in the steaks; when cooked quite enough, season with salt and pepper, turn and brown on both sides.

Steaks when fried should be thoroughly done. Have ready a hot dish, and when they are done take out the steaks and lay them on it, with another dish cover the top to keep them hot. The gravy in the pan can be turned over the steaks, first adding a few drops of boiling water, or a gravy to be served in a separate dish made by putting a large tablespoonful of flour into the hot gravy left in the pan after taking up the steaks. Stir it smooth, then pour in a pint of cream or sweet rich milk, salt and pepper, let it boil up once until it thickens, pour hot into a gravy dish and send to the table with the steaks.

POT ROAST. (Old Style.)

This is an old-fashioned dish, often cooked in our grandmothers' time.

Take a piece of fresh beef weighing about five or six pounds. It must not be _too fat_. Wash it and put it into a pot with barely sufficient water to cover it. Set it over a slow fire, and after it has stewed an hour salt and pepper it. Then stew it slowly until tender, adding a little onion if liked. Do not replenish the water at the last, but let all nearly boil away. When tender all through take the meat from the pot and pour the gravy in a bowl. Put a large lump of b.u.t.ter in the bottom of the pot, then dredge the piece of meat with flour and return it to the pot to brown, turning it often to prevent its burning. Take the gravy that you have poured from the meat into the bowl and skim off all the fat; pour this gravy in with the meat and stir in a large spoonful of flour wet with a little water; let it boil up ten or fifteen minutes and pour into a gravy dish. Serve both hot, the meat on a platter. Some are very fond of this way of cooking a piece of beef which has been previously placed in spiced pickle for two or three days.

SPICED BEEF. (Excellent.)

For a round of beef weighing twenty or twenty-four pounds, take one-quarter of a pound of saltpetre, one-quarter of a pound of coa.r.s.e brown sugar, two pounds of salt, one ounce of cloves, one ounce of allspice and half an ounce of mace; pulverize these materials, mix them well together, and with them rub the beef thoroughly on every part; let the beef lie for eight or ten days in the pickle thus made, turning and rubbing it every day; then tie it around with a broad tape, to keep it in shape; make a coa.r.s.e paste of flour and water, lay a little suet finely chopped over and under the beef, inclose the beef entirely in the paste, and bake it six hours. When you take the beef from the oven, remove the paste, but do not remove the tape until you are ready to send it to the table. If you wish, to eat the beef cold, keep it well covered that it may retain its moisture.

BEEF a LA MODE.

Mix together three teaspoonfuls of salt, one of pepper, one of ginger, one of mace, one of cinnamon, and two of cloves. Rub this mixture into ten pounds of the upper part of a round of beef. Let this beef stand in this state over night. In the morning, make a dressing or stuffing of a pint of fine bread crumbs, half a pound of fat salt pork cut in dice, a teaspoonful of ground thyme or summer savory, two teaspoonfuls sage, half a teaspoonful of pepper, one of nutmeg, a little cloves, an onion minced fine, moisten with a little milk or water. Stuff this mixture into the place from whence you took out the bone. With a long skewer fasten the two ends of the beef together, so that its form will be circular, and bind it around with tape to prevent the skewers giving way. Make incisions in the beef with a sharp knife; fill these incisions very closely with the stuffing, and dredge the whole with flour.

Put it into a dripping-pan and pour over it a pint of hot water; turn a large pan over it to keep in the steam, and roast slowly from three to four hours, allowing a quarter of an hour to each pound of meat. If the meat should be tough, it may be stewed first in a pot, with water enough to cover it, until tender, and then put into a dripping-pan and browned in the oven.

If the meat is to be eaten hot, skim off the fat from the gravy, into which, after it is taken off the fire, stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs. If onions are disliked you may omit them and subst.i.tute minced oysters.

TENDERLOIN OF BEEF.

To serve tenderloin as directed below, the whole piece must be extracted before the hind-quarter of the animal is cut out. This must be particularly noted, because not commonly practiced, the tenderloin being usually left attached to the roasting pieces, in order to furnish a tidbit for a few. To dress it whole, proceed as follows: Washing the piece well, put it in an oven; add about a pint of water, and chop up a good handful of each of the following vegetables as an ingredient of the dish, _viz._, Irish potatoes, carrots, turnips and a large bunch of celery. They must be washed, peeled and chopped up raw, then added to the meat; blended with the juice, they form and flavor the gravy. Let the whole slowly simmer, and when nearly done, add a teaspoonful of pounded allspice. To give a richness to the gravy, put in a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter. If the gravy should look too greasy, skim off some of the melted suet. Boil also a lean piece of beef, which, when perfectly done, chop fine, flavoring with a very small quant.i.ty of onion, besides pepper and salt to the taste. Make into small b.a.l.l.s, wet them on the outside with eggs, roll in grated cracker or fine bread crumbs. Fry these force meat b.a.l.l.s a light brown. When serving the dish, put these around the tenderloin, and pour over the whole the rich gravy. This dish is a very handsome one, and, altogether, fit for an epicurean palate. A sumptuous dish.

STEWED STEAK WITH OYSTERS.

Two pounds of rump steak, one pint of oysters, one tablespoonful of lemon juice, three of b.u.t.ter, one of flour, salt, pepper, one cupful of water. Wash the oysters in the water and drain into a stewpan. Put this liquor on to heat. As soon as it comes to a boil, skim and set back. Put the b.u.t.ter in a frying pan, and when hot, put in a steak.