The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) Part 21

Cook ten minutes. Take up the steak, and stir the flour into the b.u.t.ter remaining in the pan. Stir until a dark brown. Add the oyster liquor and boil one minute. Season with salt and pepper. Put back the steak, cover the pan, and simmer half an hour or until the steak seems tender, then add the oysters and lemon juice. Boil one minute. Serve on a hot dish with points of toast for a garnish.

SMOTHERED BEEFSTEAK.

Take _thin_ slices of steak from the upper part of the round or one large thin steak. Lay the meat out smoothly and wipe it dry. Prepare a dressing, using a cupful of fine bread crumbs, half a teaspoonful of salt, some pepper, a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, half a teaspoonful of sage, the same of powdered summer savory, and enough milk to moisten it all into a stiff mixture. Spread it over the meat, roll it up carefully, and tie with a string, securing the ends well. Now fry a few thin slices of salt pork in the bottom of a kettle or saucepan, and into the fat that has fried out of this pork, place this roll or rolls of beef, and brown it on all sides, turning it until a rich color all over, then add half a pint of water, and stew until tender.

If the flavor of onion is liked, a slice may be chopped fine and added to the dressing. When cooked sufficiently, take out the meat, thicken the gravy, and turn over it. To be carved cutting crosswise, in slices, through beef and stuffing.

BEEFSTEAK ROLLS.

This mode is similar to the above recipe, but many might prefer it.

Prepare a good dressing, such as you like for turkey or duck; take a round steak, pound it, but not very hard, spread the dressing over it, sprinkle in a little salt, pepper, and a few bits of b.u.t.ter, lap over the ends, roll the steak up tightly and tie closely; spread two great spoonfuls of b.u.t.ter over the steak after rolling it up, then wash with a well-beaten egg, put water in the bake-pan, lay in the steak so as not to touch the water, and bake as you would a duck, basting often. A half-hour in a brisk oven will bake. Make a brown gravy and send to the table hot.

TO COLLAR A FLANK OF BEEF.

Procure a well-corned flank of beef--say six pounds. Wash it, and remove the inner and outer skin with the gristle. Prepare a seasoning of one teaspoonful each of sage, parsley, thyme, pepper and cloves.

Lay your meat upon a board and spread this mixture over the inside.

Roll the beef up tight, fasten it with small skewers, put a cloth over it, bandage the cloth with tape, put the beef into the stewpot, cover it with water to the depth of an inch, boil gently six hours; take it out of the water, place it on a board without undoing it; lay a board on top of the beef, put a fifty pound weight upon this board, and let it remain twenty-four hours. Take off the bandage, garnish with green pickles and curled parsley, and serve.

DRIED BEEF.

Buy the best of beef, or that part which will be the most lean and tender. The tender part of the round is a very good piece. For every twenty pounds of beef use one pint of salt, one teaspoonful of saltpetre, and a quarter of a pound of brown sugar. Mix them well together, and rub the beef well with one-third of the mixture for three successive days. Let it lie in the liquor it makes for six days, then hang up to dry.

A large crock or jar is a good vessel to prepare the meat in before drying it.

BEEF CORNED OR SALTED. (Red.)

Cut up a quarter of beef. For each hundred weight take half a peck of coa.r.s.e salt, a quarter of a pound of saltpetre, the same weight of saleratus and a quart of mola.s.ses, or two pounds of coa.r.s.e brown sugar. Mace, cloves and allspice may be added for spiced beef.

Strew some of the salt in the bottom of a pickle-tub or barrel, then put in a layer of meat, strew this with salt, then add another layer of meat, and salt and meat alternately, until all is used. Let it remain one night. Dissolve the saleratus and saltpetre in a little warm water, and put it to the mola.s.ses or sugar; then put it over the meat, add water enough to cover the meat, lay a board on it to keep it under the brine. The meat is fit for use after ten days. This recipe is for winter beef. Rather more salt may be used in warm weather.

Towards spring take the brine from the meat, make it boiling hot, skim it clear, and when it is cooled, return it to the meat.

Beef tongues and smoking pieces are fine pickled in this brine. Beef liver put in this brine for ten days, and then wiped dry and smoked, is very fine. Cut it in slices, and fry or broil it. The brisket of beef, after being corned, may be smoked, and is very good for boiling.

Lean pieces of beef, cut properly from the hind-quarter, are the proper pieces for being smoked. There may be some fine pieces cut from the fore-quarter.

After the beef has been in brine ten days or more, wipe it dry, and hang it in a chimney where wood is burned, or make a smothered fire of sawdust or chips, and keep it smoking for ten days; then rub fine black pepper over every part to keep the flies from it, and hang it in a _dry, dark, cool place_. After a week it is fit for use. A strong, coa.r.s.e brown paper, folded around the beef, and fastened with paste, keeps it nicely.

Tongues are smoked in the same manner. Hang them by a string put through the root end. Spiced brine for smoked beef or tongues will be generally liked.

ROAST BEEF PIE WITH POTATO CRUST.

When you have a cold roast of beef, cut off as much as will half fill a baking-dish suited to the size of your family; put this sliced beef into a stewpan with any gravy that you may have also saved, a lump of b.u.t.ter, a bit of sliced onion and a seasoning of pepper and salt, with enough water to make plenty of gravy; thicken it, too, by dredging in a tablespoonful of flour; cover it up on the fire, where it may stew gently, but not be in danger of burning. Meanwhile there must be boiled a sufficient quant.i.ty of potatoes to fill up your baking-dish, after the stewed meat has been transferred to it. The potatoes must be boiled done, mashed smooth, and beaten up with milk and b.u.t.ter, as if they were to be served alone, and placed in a thick layer on top of the meat. Brush it over with egg, place the dish in an oven, and let it remain there long enough to be brown. There should be a goodly quant.i.ty of gravy left with the beef, that the dish be not dry and tasteless. Serve with it tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce or any other kind that you prefer. A good, plain dish.

ROAST BEEF PIE.

Cut up roast beef, or beefsteak left from a previous meal, into thin slices, lay some of the slices into a deep dish which you have lined _on the sides_ with rich biscuit dough, rolled very thin (say a quarter of an inch thick); now sprinkle over this layer a little pepper and salt; put in a small bit of b.u.t.ter, a few slices of cold potatoes, a little of the cold gravy, if you have any left from the roast. Make another layer of beef, another layer of seasoning, and so on, until the dish is filled; cover the whole with paste leaving a slit in the centre, and bake half an hour.

BEEFSTEAK PIE.

Cut up rump or flank steak into strips two inches long and about an inch wide. Stew them with the bone, in just enough water to cover them, until partly cooked; have half a dozen of cold boiled potatoes sliced. Line a baking-dish with pie paste, put in a layer of the meat with salt, pepper, and a little of thinly-sliced onion, then one of the sliced potatoes, with bits of b.u.t.ter dotted over them. Then the steak, alternated with layers of potato, until the dish is full. Add the gravy or broth, having first thickened it with brown flour. Cover with a top crust, making a slit in the middle; brush a little beaten egg over it, and bake until quite brown.

FRIZZLED BEEF.

Shave off _very thin_ slices of smoked or dried beef, put them in a frying pan, cover with cold water, set it on the back of the range or stove, and let it come to a very slow heat, allowing it time to swell out to its natural size, but not to boil. Stir it up, then drain off the water. Melt one ounce of sweet b.u.t.ter in the frying pan and add the wafers of beef. When they begin to frizzle or turn up, break over them three eggs; stir until the eggs are cooked; add a little white pepper, and serve on slices of b.u.t.tered toast.

FLANK STEAK.

This is cut from the boneless part of the flank and is secreted between an outside and inside layer of creamy fat. There are two ways for broiling it. One is to slice diagonally across the grain; the other is to broil it whole. In either case brush b.u.t.ter over it and proceed as in broiling other steaks. It is considered by butchers the finest steak, which they frequently reserve for themselves.

TO BOIL CORNED BEEF.

The aitch-bone and the brisket are considered the best pieces for boiling. If you buy them in the market already corned, they will be fit to put over the fire without a previous soaking in water. If you corn them in the brine in which you keep your beef through the winter, they must be soaked in cold water over night. Put the beef into a pot, cover with sufficient _cold_ water, place over a brisk fire, let it come to a boil in half an hour; just before boiling remove all the sc.u.m from the pot, place the pot on the back of the fire, let it boil very slowly until quite tender.

A piece weighing eight pounds requires two and a half hours' boiling.

If you do not wish to eat it hot, let it remain in the pot after you take it from the fire until nearly cold, then lay it in a colander to drain, lay a cloth over it to retain its fresh appearance; serve with horse-radish and pickles.

If vegetables are to accompany this, making it the old-fashioned "boiled dinner," about three-quarters of an hour before dishing up skim the liquor free from fat and _turn part of it out into another kettle_, into which put a cabbage carefully prepared, cutting it into four quarters; also half a dozen peeled medium-sized white turnips, cut into halves; sc.r.a.pe four carrots and four parsnips each cut into four pieces. Into the kettle with the meat, about half an hour before serving, pour on more water from the boiling tea-kettle, and into this put peeled medium-sized potatoes. This dinner should also be accompanied by boiled beets, sliced hot, cooked separate from the rest, with vinegar over them. Cooking the cabbage separately from the meat prevents the meat from having the flavor of cabbage when cold.

The carrots, parsnips and turnips will boil in about an hour. A piece of salt pork was usually boiled with a "New England boiled dinner."

SPICED BEEF RELISH.

Take two pounds of raw, tender beefsteak, chop it _very fine_, put into it salt, pepper and a little sage, two tablespoonfuls of melted b.u.t.ter; add two rolled crackers made very fine, also two well-beaten eggs. Make it up into the shape of a roll and bake it; baste with b.u.t.ter and water before baking. Cut in slices when cold.

FRIED BEEF LIVER.

Cut it in rather thin slices, say a quarter of an inch thick; pour over it _boiling_ water, which closes the pores of the meat, makes it impervious to the fat, and at the same time seals up the rich juice of the meat. It may be rolled in flour or bread crumbs, seasoned with salt and pepper, dipped in egg and fried in hot fat mixed with one-third b.u.t.ter.

PRESSED BEEF.

First have your beef nicely pickled; let it stay in pickle a week; then take the thin, flanky pieces, such as will not make a handsome dish of themselves, put on a large potful, and let them boil until perfectly done; then pull to pieces, and season just as you do souse, with pepper, salt and allspice; only put it in a coa.r.s.e cloth and press down upon it some very heavy weight.

The advantage of this recipe is that it makes a most acceptable, presentable dish out of a part of the beef that otherwise might be wasted.