Part 8

ROASTING BEEF.--The prime piece of beef for roasting is the sirloin; but being too large for a small family, the ribs are generally preferred, when there are but few persons to eat of it. So also is the baron, or double sirloin, undivided along the back. It is chiefly seen at great dinners. Except the sirloin and ribs, there are no very good roasting pieces, all the rest being generally used for stews, soups, &c., and for corning or salting. Unless the animal is a very fine one, the inferior pieces are apt to be tough, hard, and coarse. The round is the best piece for corning or salting, and for cooking, as beef _a-la-mode_, or converting into what, in England, is called rump-steaks. These steaks require a rolling-pin, before they can be made tender enough for good eating, or good digestion. The finest and tenderest steaks are those cut from the sirloin. The meat of a young well-fed heifer is very good; and that of an old ox, (that has done working, and afterwards been fattened well on plenty of wholesome food,) may be made of superior excellence. The lean of good fresh beef is of a bright red color, a fine close grain, and feels tender to the touch on pinching it between your thumb and finger. The fat is firm and very nearly white. The suet about the kidney, firm and quite white. If, on the contrary, the lean is coarse, tough, and of a dull color, and the fat scanty, yellow, and moist, do not buy that meat for any purpose. The same rules will apply to mutton. If the weather is so cold that the meat is frozen, thaw it by lying it all night or early in the morning in a tub of _cold_ water. If thawed in water the least warm, the meat will spoil, and be rendered unfit to eat. Meat that has been frozen, requires a much longer time to cook, than if that accident had not happened. _All_ frozen animals must be thawed in cold water previous to cooking. Cold roast-beef is much liked in England. In America, where meat is more abundant, and therefore less costly, it is not considered a proper dish to place before a visitor; therefore, in our country, a large piece is seldom cooked with a view to next day's dinner. We prefer smaller pieces, always served up fresh and hot. Beef for roasting, should be well washed in plenty of cold water; then dried with a clean cloth. Prepare the fire, in time to be burning well, when the meat is put down. It should have plenty of hot coals, and no part of the fire black, ashy, or smoky, and the hearth swept very clean: _for no sweeping must go on while the meat (or any thing else) is cooking_. The spit should always be kept perfectly clean, when not in use; and well washed, wiped, and rubbed immediately after using. Run it evenly into the meat, which will hang crooked if not well balanced. When first put down, take care not to set it at once too close to the fire, but place it rather more than two feet distant, that the meat may heat gradually. If too near the fire at first, the outside will scorch, and leave the inside red and bloody. Underdone meat (foolishly called _rare_) is getting quite out of fashion, being unwholesome and indigestible, and to most Americans its savour is disgusting. To ladies and children it is always so, and even the English have ceased to like it. It is now seldom seen but at those public tables, where they consider it an object to have as little meat as possible eaten on the first day, that more may be left for the second day, to be made into indescribable messes, with ridiculous French names, and passed off as French dishes, by the so-called French cook, who is frequently an Irishman.

At first, baste the meat as soon as it begins to roast, with a little fresh butter, or fresh dripping saved from yesterday's beef. Then, when its own fat begins to drip, baste it with that, all the while it is cooking. Gradually move it nearer to the fire, turning the spit round frequently, so that the meat may be cooked equally on all sides. When it is nearly done, sprinkle it slightly, with a little salt. When it is quite done, and you take it from the spit, put it on a large hot dish, and keep it warm while you skim the gravy, thoroughly, so as to remove _all_ the fat. Then mix in the gravy a small tea-cup full of hot water, and thicken it with a very little browned flour. Send it to table very hot.

As a general rule, a sirloin, weighing fifteen pounds, will require about four hours (or more) before a good steady fire. If it has been frozen, it will take much longer. The fatter it is the more cooking it will require. When sent to table, place near it, a small sauce-shell of horse-radish, washed, scraped fine, and moistened with the best vinegar. Put a tea-spoon on the top to take it with. Pickles, and a bottle of French mustard, at good tables, are generally accompaniments to beef or mutton, whether roasted or boiled.

The dripping of roast beef, after all the fat has been removed, and the basting of the meat is over, should be strained into a pan, and kept in a cold place, with a cover; and next day, when it is congealed into a cake, scrape off whatever impurities may still adhere to the bottom, transfer it to a covered jar, and set it in the refrigerator, or where it will be cold. The dripping of roast beef is excellent for frying, for plain pie-crust, or for many other purposes. The dripping of mutton (being tallow) is only fit for soap-fat, and will spoil any dish whatever.

BROILED BEEF STEAKS.--The best steaks are those from the tender-loin. Those from the round or rump require beating with a rolling-pin. A steak-mallet tears them and destroys the juices of the meat. Without beating they will generally be found too tough or hard for an American taste, though much liked in Europe, where tender-loin steaks are considered too expensive. But they are here so much preferred, that, on good tables, any others are seldom seen. Have all the steaks nearly of a size and shape, and about half an inch thick. Trim off the fat, and cut short the bone, or remove it altogether. Season them with black pepper, but sprinkle on no salt till they have done cooking; as salt, if put on at first, hardens them. Set your gridiron over a bed of bright clear coals, having first rubbed the bars with a very little beef suet, or dripping. Not mutton fat, as it will give the taste of tallow.

A beef steak cannot be cooked in perfection unless over wood coals. To cook them before an anthracite fire, on an upright gridiron, is more like toasting than broiling, and much impairs the true flavor. A gridiron of the usual shape, with grooved or hollow bars to catch the gravy, is best of all. Broil the steaks well; and when done on one side, turn each steak with steak tongs; or a knife and fork, and an inverted plate.

If onions are liked, peel and boil a few; drain and mince them, and sprinkle them thickly over the surface of each steak. When they are well done, take them off the gridiron, and transfer them to a heated dish, laying a small bit of butter upon it; and put another bit of butter on the surface of each steak, having first sprinkled them with a very little fine salt. What there is of their own gravy, pour round them on the dish. Send it to table as hot as possible.

The English custom of eating what is called _rare_ or underdone beef or mutton, is now becoming obsolete. To ladies, especially, all food is disgusting that is red and bloody-looking--and physicians have discovered, that nothing is wholesome unless well cooked. The introduction of French cookery has done that much good.

The onions may be stewed in butter or gravy, and served up in a sauce-boat, seasoned with nutmeg. At the famous beef-steak club of London, each guest is furnished with a small raw onion, to take on his fork, and rub over his empty plate, just before the steaks are served up, which is done one at a time, and as hot as possible, being cooked in the room.

FRIED BEEF STEAKS.--Sirloin steaks should be tender enough without beating. Rump steaks will require some; but do not beat them so much as to tear the meat and exhaust all its juices. We have seen them pounded almost into a mass of dry shreds, scarcely adhering together. Remove the fat and bone. Lay them in a frying-pan, with a little fresh butter dredged with flour, and season them with pepper. Fry them brown, turning them on both sides. Have ready some onions, peeled, washed, and sliced. After you have turned the steaks, cover them with the sliced onions, and then finish the frying, till all is thoroughly done, meat and onions, slightly sprinkling them with salt. The onions had best be boiled in a small sauce-pan by themselves, before they are sliced and fried.

Put the whole on one dish, the onions covering the meat.

Mutton chops, or veal cutlets, or pork steaks, may be fried in this manner with onions, adding to them some minced sweet marjoram, or if pork, some sage.

BEEF STEAK WITH OYSTERS.--Take very fine tender sirloin steak, divested of fat and bone; cut them not larger than the palm of your hand; lay them in a stew-pan with some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. Strain over them sufficient oyster-liquor to cook them well, and to keep them from burning, and to make a gravy so as to stew, but not to boil them. Season them with some blades of mace, some grated nutmeg, and a few whole pepper-corns. Let them cook till they are thoroughly done, and not the least red. Then put in some fine large oysters. Set the stew-pan again over the fire till the oysters are plump, which should be in about five or six minutes. If cooked too much, the oysters will toughen and shrink. When done, transfer the whole to a deep dish, mixing the oysters evenly among the meat. Before you take them up, make some sippet or thin toast, in triangular or pointed slices, with the crust cut off. Dip the slices (for a minute) in boiling water; then take them out, and stand them in a circle all round the inside of the dish, the points of the sippets upwards.

CORNED OR SALTED BEEF.--For boiling, there is no piece of corned beef so good, and so profitable, as the round. A large round is always better and more tender than a small one, if the ox has been well fed. A small round of beef is generally tough. In buying it, see that it looks and smells well, as sometimes beef is not salted till it begins to taint; and then it is done, with a view of disguising its unwholesome and disgusting condition, which, however, will immediately be manifest as soon as it is put on to boil, if not before. Every sort of food, the least verging on decomposition, is unfit for any thing but to throw away or bury. It is not necessary to buy always a whole round of beef. You can have it cut into a half, third part, quarter, or into as many pounds as you want. If very salt, lay it to soak in cold water the night before, or early in the morning. Half a round (weighing about fifteen pounds) will require about four hours to boil sufficiently. A whole round, double that time. It must boil very slowly. If it boils too fast at first, nothing will afterwards make it tender. The fire must be steady, and moderate, that the heat may penetrate all through, slowly and equally. The pot must be kept closely covered, unless for a minute when the scum is taken off, and that must be done frequently. The beef should, while boiling, be turned several times in the pot. It is much the best way to boil it without any vegetables in the same pot; they imbibe too much of the fat, particularly cabbage. Boil the cabbage by itself in plenty of water, having first washed it well, laid it a while in cold water, with the head downwards, and examined it well to see if there are no insects between the leaves. The leaves on the very outside, should be removed, and the stalk cut short. Tie a string round the cabbage to keep it from falling apart. Put it into a pot with plenty of cold water, and boil it an hour. Then take it out, drain it, and lay it in a pan of cold water, or place it under the hydrant, for the hydrant water to run copiously upon it.

When the cabbage is perfectly cold, wash out the pot in which it was parboiled, or put it into another quite clean one, and boil it another hour. Then take it up, and keep it warm till wanted. Before you send it to table, lay some bits of nice fresh butter between the inside leaves, and sprinkle on a little pepper. This is much nicer than preparing what is called drawn or melted butter to pour over the cabbage, and far more wholesome. Drawn butter is seldom well made, being frequently little more than a small morsel of butter, deluged with greasy water; and sometimes it is nearly all flour and water. Cabbage cooked as above will be found excellent, and be divested of the cabbage smell which is to many persons disagreeable.

Carrots are also an usual accompaniment to corned beef. They should be washed, scraped, cut into pieces, and split, if very large; put into boiling water, and cooked, according to their size, from one hour to two hours. Before taking them up, try with a fork if they are tender throughout. When done, they are best cut into slices, a little cold butter mixed with them, and put into a deep dish, to be helped with a spoon.

Parsnips may be dressed in the same manner.

For a plain family dinner, corned beef, cabbage, and carrots, cooked _exactly_ as above, with, of course, the addition of potatos, will, on trial, be found excellent.

Corned beef _stewed_ very slowly, in a small quantity of water, (barely sufficient to cover the meat,) well skimmed, and with the vegetables done separately, is still better than when _boiled_. Mustard is a good condiment for corned beef--so is vinegar to the cabbage. Pickles, also; French mustard is very fine with it.

Next to the round, the edgebone is the best piece for boiling. The brisket or plate is too fat, and should only be eaten by persons in strong health, and who take a great deal of exercise. No fat meat should be given to children. Indeed there is generally great difficulty in making them eat it. They are right, as it is very unwholesome for them, unless the very leanest bits are selected from among the mass of fat.

Have tarragon vinegar on the table to eat with corned beef and cabbage.

FRIED CORNED BEEF.--This is a very homely and economical dish, but it is liked by many persons. Cut thin slices from a cold round of beef, and season them with pepper. Fry them brown over a quick fire, and put them in a covered dish to keep hot. Then wash the frying-pan, cleaning it well from the fat, and put into it plenty of cold boiled cabbage, cut small, and some cold carrots, sliced thin, adding some thin sliced suet, or beef dripping to fry them in. When done, dish the meat with the vegetables laid around it; adding the gravy. This is the dish called in England, Bubble-and-Squeak, perhaps from the noise it makes when frying. It is only designed for strong healthy people with good appetites.

It is sometimes made of salt pork or bacon; sliced potatos being added to the cabbage.

DRIED AND SMOKED BEEF.--For this purpose have as much as you want cut off from a fine round. Mix together two ounces of saltpetre, (finely pounded) rub it into the meat, cover it, and let it stand a day. Then mix together half a pound of bay-salt, an ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of ground ginger, and an ounce of pounded mace, and a quarter of an ounce of powdered cloves. Rub this mixture well into the beef, put it into a deep pan, and let it lie in this pickle two weeks, turning it every day. Then hang it up in a smoke-house, and smoke it over a fire made of corn-cobs, or maple chips. Never use pine for smoking.

It may be eaten chipped at tea, or what is much better, stewed and warmed in a skillet. Venison may be spiced, dried, and smoked in the same manner.

TO STEW SMOKED BEEF.--Having chipped it thin, put it into a skillet, with fresh butter, pepper, and two or three beaten yolks of eggs. Let it stew till the beef is crisp and curled up.

Never allow yourself to be persuaded to use pyroligneous acid in curing dried beef or ham--instead of the real smoke of a wood fire. It communicates a taste and smell of kreosote, and is a detestable substitute, detected in a moment.

A SPICED ROUND OF BEEF.--Take a large prime round of beef; extract the bone, and close the hole. Tie a tape all round it to keep it firm. Take four ounces of finely powdered saltpetre, and rub it well into the beef. Put the meat into a very clean pickling-tub that has a close-fitting cover, and let it rest for two days. Next rub it thoroughly with salt, and return it to the tub for eight days. Then take an ounce of powdered mace, a large nutmeg powdered, a half-ounce of pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of powdered cloves, (not more.) Mix these spices well together, and then mix them with a pound of fine brown sugar. Rub the spices and sugar thoroughly all over the beef, which will be ready to cook next day. Then fill the opening with minced sweet herbs, sweet basil, and sweet marjoram, laid in loosely and lightly. Take half a pound of nice beef-suet. Divide it in two, and flatten each half of the suet by beating it with a rolling-pin. Lay it in a broad earthen pan, with one sheet of suet under the meat, and the other pressed over it. Above this place a sheet of clean white paper, and over all put a large plate. Set it in a hot oven, and bake it five hours or more, till by probing it to the bottom, with a sharp knife, you find it thoroughly cooked. It is excellent as a cold standing dish, for a large family. When it is to be eaten cold, boil fresh cabbage to go with it. Also parsnips and carrots.

_Cabbage._--For this beef, red cabbage is very nice, cut small, and stewed with butter and tarragon vinegar.

A-LA-MODE BEEF.--Remove the bone from a fine round of fresh beef, and also take off the fat. For a round that weighs ten pounds, make seasoning or stuffing in the following proportions. Half a pound of beef suet; half a pound of grated bread-crumbs; the crumbled yolks of three hard-boiled eggs; a large bundle of sweet marjoram, the leaves chopped; another of sweet basil; four onions minced small, a large table-spoonful of mixed mace and nutmeg, powdered. Season slightly with salt and cayenne. Stuff this mixture into the place from whence you took out the bone. Make numerous deep cuts or incisions about the meat, and stuff them also. Skewer the meat into a proper shape, and secure its form by tying it round with tape. Put it into a clean iron oven or bake-pan, and pour over it a pint of port wine. Put on the lid, and bake the beef slowly for five or six hours, or till it is thoroughly done all through.

If the meat is to be eaten hot, skim all 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 can omit them, and substitute minced oysters.

BEEF A-LA-MODE--(_Another way._)--Take a fine round of fresh beef, extract the bone, and fill the place from whence it was taken with a stuffing made of bread soaked in milk and then mashed up, butter, and some yolks of hard-boiled eggs crumbled fine, the yellow rind and juice of a large grated lemon, sweet marjoram and sweet basil chopped small, with some powdered nutmeg and mace. Make deep cuts or incisions all over the outside of the meat, and in every cut stick firmly a slip of bacon or salt pork put in with a larding-pin. Bring round the flap and skewer to the side of the round, filling in between with some of the stuffing. And pour round it a pint or more of port wine. Lay it in an oven, and bake it slowly till it is well done all through, which will require some hours. Serve it up with its own gravy under it. It is more generally eaten cold, at a supper party. In this case, cover it thickly all over with double parsley or pepper grass, so as to resemble a green bank. In the centre place a bouquet of natural flowers, rising from the green bank.

French a-la-mode beef, or beef _a-la-daube_, is prepared as above, but stewed slowly all night in lard.

BEEF BOUILLI.--Take from six to eight pounds of a fine round of _fresh_ beef. Put it into a soup-pot, with the remains of a piece of cold roast beef (bones and all) to enrich the gravy, but use no other cold meat than beef. Season it slightly with salt and pepper, and pour on just sufficient water to cover it well. Boil it slowly, and skim it well. When the scum ceases to rise, have ready half a dozen large carrots, cut into pieces, and put _them_ in first. Afterwards add six turnips, quartered; a head of celery, cut small; half a dozen parsnips, cut in pieces; and six whole onions. Let it boil slowly till all the vegetables are done, and very tender.

Send it to table with the beef in the middle of a large dish; the vegetables laid all around it; and the gravy (thickened with fine grated bread-crumbs) in a sauce-boat. Serve up with it, white potatos, boiled whole; and mashed pumpkin, or winter squash.

This is a good dinner for a plain family.

Those who like tarragon mustard, or tarragon vinegar, may add it on their plates.

Tomatos may be skinned and stewed with it.

TO STEW COLD CORNED BEEF.--Cut about four pounds of lean from a cold round of beef, that tastes but little of the salt. Lay it in a stew-pan, with a quarter of a peck of tomatos quartered, and the same quantity of ochras sliced; also, two small onions peeled and sliced, and two ounces of fresh butter rolled in flour. Add a tea-spoonful of whole pepper-corns, (_no salt_,) and four or five blades of mace. Place it over a steady but moderate fire. Cover it closely, and let it stew three or four hours. The vegetables should be entirely dissolved. Serve it up hot.

This is an excellent way of using up the remains of a cold round of beef at the season of tomatos and ochras, particularly when the meat has been rather under-boiled the first day of cooking it.

A few pounds of the lean of a _fresh_ round of beef, will be still better, cooked in this manner, increasing the quantity of ochras and tomatos, and stewing it six hours.

Cold fillet of veal is very good stewed with tomatos, ochras, and an onion or two. Also, the thick or upper part of a cold leg of mutton; or of pork, either fresh or corned.

TO STEW SMOKED BEEF.--The dried beef, for this purpose, must be fresh and of the very best quality. Cut it (or rather shave it) into very thin, small slices, with as little fat as possible. Put the beef into a skillet, and fill up with boiling water. Cover it, and let it soak or steep till the water is cold. Then drain off that water, and pour on some more; but merely enough to cover the chipped beef, which you may season with a little pepper. Set it over the fire, and (keeping on the cover) let it stew for a quarter of an hour. Then roll a few bits of butter in a little flour, and add it to the beef, with the yolk of one or two beaten eggs. Let it stew five minutes longer. Take it up on a hot dish, and send it to the breakfast or tea-table.

Cold ham may be sliced thin, and stewed in the same manner. Dried venison also.