[Cold Meat Cookery.] Ingredients.—A few slices of cold salt beef, pepper to taste,½ lb. of butter, mashed potatoes. Mode.—Cut any part of cold salt beef into thin slices, fry them gently in butter, and season with a little pepper. Have ready some very hot mashed potatoes, lay the slices of beef on them, and garnish with 3 or 4 pickled gherkins. Cold salt beef, warmed in a little liquor from mixed pickle, drained, and served as above, will be found good. Time.—About 5 minutes. Average cost, exclusive of the meat, 4d. Seasonable at any time.
BEEF FRITTERS.
[Cold Meat Cookery.] Ingredients.—The remains of cold roast beef, pepper and salt to taste,¾ lb. of flour,½ pint of water, 2 oz. of butter, the whites of 2 eggs. Mode.—Mix very smoothly, and, by degrees, the flour with the above proportion of water; stir in 2 oz. of butter, which must be melted but not oiled, and, just before it is to be used, add the whites of two well-whisked eggs. Should the batter be too thick, more water must be added. Pare down the cold beef into thin shreds, season with pepper and salt, and mix it with the batter. Drop a small quantity at a time into a pan of boiling lard, and fry from 7 to 10 minutes, according to the size. When done on one side, turn and brown them on the other. Let them dry for a minute or two before the fire, and serve on a folded napkin. A small quantity of finely-minced onions, mixed with the batter, is an improvement. Time.—From 7 to 10 minutes. Average cost, exclusive of the meat, 6d. Seasonable at any time.
BEEF, Hashed.
[Cold Meat Cookery. 1.] Ingredients.—Gravy saved from the meat, 1 teaspoonful of tomato sauce, one teaspoonful of Harvey’s sauce, one teaspoonful of good mushroom ketchup,½ glass of port wine or strong ale, pepper and salt to taste, a little flour to thicken, 1 onion finely minced, a few slices of cold roast beef. Mode.—Put all the ingredients but the beef into a stewpan with whatever gravy may have been saved from the meat the day it was roasted; simmer these gently for 10 minutes, then take the stewpan off the fire; let the gravy cool and skim off the fat. Cut the beef into thin slices, dredge them with flour, and lay them in the gravy; let the whole simmer gently for 5 minutes, but not boil, or the meat will be tough and hard. Serve very hot, and garnish with sippets of toasted bread. Time.—20 minutes. Average cost, exclusive of the cold meat, 4d. Seasonable at any time.
[Cold Meat Cookery. 2.] Ingredients.—The remains of ribs or sirloin of beef, 2 onions, 1 carrot, 1 bunch of savoury herbs, pepper and salt to taste,½ blade of pounded mace, thickening of flour, rather more than 1 pint of water. Mode.—Take off all the meat from the bones of ribs or sirloin of beef; remove the outside brown and gristle; place the meat on one side, and well stew the bones and pieces, with the above ingredients, for about 2 hours, till it becomes a strong gravy, and is reduced to rather more than ½ pint; strain this, thicken with a teaspoonful of flour, and let the gravy cool; skim off all the fat; lay in the meat, let it get hot through, but do not allow it to boil; and garnish with sippets of toasted bread. The gravy should be flavoured as in the preceding recipe. Time.—Rather more than 2 hours. Average cost, exclusive of the cold meat, 6d. Seasonable at any time.
Note.—Either of the above recipes may be served in walls of mashed potatoes browned; in which case the sippets should be omitted. Be careful that hashed meat does not boil, or it will become tough.
BEEF, Hunter’s.
Ingredients.—For a round of beef weighing 25 lbs. allow 3 oz. of saltpetre, 3 oz. of coarse sugar, 1 oz. of cloves, 1 grated nutmeg,½ oz. of allspice, 1 lb. of salt,½ lb. bay-salt. Mode.—Hang the beef for 2 or 3 days, and remove the bone. Pound spices, salt, &c. in the above proportion, and let them be reduced to the finest powder. Put the beef into a pan, rub all the ingredients well into it, and turn and rub it every day for rather more than a fortnight. When it has been sufficiently long in pickle, wash the meat, bind it up securely with tape, and put it into a pan with ½ pint of water at the bottom; mince some suet, cover the top of the meat with it, and over the pan put a common crust of flour and water; bake for 6 hours, and when cold remove the paste. Save the gravy that flows from it, as it adds greatly to the flavour of hashes, stews, &c. The beef may be glazed and garnished with meat jelly. Time.—6 hours. Seasonable all the year.
Note.—In salting or pickling beef or pork for family consumption, it not being generally required to be kept for a great length of time, a less quantity of salt and a larger quantity of other matters more adapted to retain mellowness in meat, may be employed, which could not be adopted by the curer of the immense quantities of meat required to be preserved for victualling the shipping of this maritime country. Sugar, which is well known to possess the preserving principle in a very great degree, without the pungency and astringency of salt, may be, and is, very generally used in the preserving of meat for family consumption. Although it acts without corrugating or contracting the fibres of meat, as is the case in the action of salt, and, therefore, does not impair its mellowness, yet its use in sufficient quantities for preservative effect, without the addition of other antiseptics, would impart a flavour not agreeable to the taste of many persons. It may be used, however, together with salt, with the greatest advantage in imparting mildness and mellowness to cured meat, in a proportion of about one part by weight to four of the mixture; and, perhaps, now that sugar is so much lower in price than it was in former years, one of the obstructions to its more frequent use is removed.
BEEF KIDNEY, to Dress.
Ingredients.—1 kidney, clarified butter, pepper and salt to taste, a small quantity of highly-seasoned gravy, 1 tablespoonful of lemon-juice,¼ teaspoonful of powdered sugar. Mode.—Cut the kidneys into neat slices, put them into warm water to soak for two hours, and change the water 2 or 3 times; then lay them on a clean cloth to dry the water from them, place them in a frying-pan with some clarified butter, and fry them of a nice brown; season each side with pepper and salt, put them round the dish, with the gravy in the middle. Before pouring the gravy in the dish, add the lemon-juice and sugar. Time.—From 5 to 10 minutes. Average cost, 9d. each. Seasonable at any time.
BEEF KIDNEY, to Dress.
Ingredients.—1 kidney, 1 dessertspoonful of minced parsley, 1 teaspoonful of minced shalot, salt and pepper to taste; ¼ pint of gravy (follow one of the gravy recipes), 3 tablespoonfuls of sherry. Mode.—Take off a little of the kidney fat, mince it very fine, and put it in a frying-pan; slice the kidney, sprinkle over it parsley and shalots in the above proportion, add a seasoning of pepper and salt, and fry it of a nice brown. When it is done enough, dredge over a little flour, and pour in the gravy and sherry. Let it just simmer, but not boil any more, or the kidney would harden; serve very hot, and garnish with croûtons. Where the flavour of the shalot is disliked it may be omitted, and a small quantity of savoury herbs substituted for it. Time.—From 5 to 10 minutes, according to the thickness of the slices. Average cost, 9d. each. Sufficient for 3 persons. Seasonable at any time.
BEEF KIDNEY, to Dress (a more simple method).