Peel and slice two large onions; put them into a stewpan with two table-spoonfuls of water; set it on a slow fire till the water is boiled away and the onions have become a little brown. Add half a pint of good broth; boil the onions till tender; strain the broth from them, and chop them fine; thicken with flour and b.u.t.ter, and season with mushroom ketchup, pepper, and salt; put the onions in, and boil it gently for five minutes: pour the gravy over a broiled rump-steak.
_Beef Steaks, to stew._
Pepper and salt two fine rump steaks; lay them in a stewpan with a few cloves, some mace, an onion, one anchovy, a bundle of sweet herbs, a gill of white wine, and a little b.u.t.ter mixed with flour; cover them close, stew them very gently till they are tender, and shake the pan round often to keep them from sticking. Take them carefully out, flour and fry them of a nice brown in fresh b.u.t.ter, and put them in a dish. In the mean time strain off the gravy from the fat out of the frying-pan, and put it in the sauce, with a dozen oysters blanched, and a little of the oyster liquor; give it a boil up, pour it over the steaks, and garnish with horseradish. You may fry them first and then stew them; put them in a dish, and strain the sauce over them without any oysters, as a common dish.
_Another way._
Beat three pounds of rump steaks; put them in a stewpan, with a pint of water, the same quant.i.ty of small beer, six cloves, a large onion, a bunch of sweet-herbs, a carrot, a turnip, pepper, and salt. Stew this very gently, closely covered, for four or five hours; but take care the meat does not go to rags, by being done too fast. Take up the meat, and strain the gravy over it. Have turnips cut into b.a.l.l.s, and carrots into shapes, and put them over the meat.
_Beef Olives._
Take a rump of beef, cut into steaks, about five inches long and not half an inch thick. Lay on some good forcemeat, made with veal; roll them, and tie them round once or twice, to keep them in a neat shape.
Mix some crumbs of bread, egg, a little grated nutmeg, pepper and salt; fry them brown; have ready some good gravy, with a few truffles, morels, and mushrooms, boiled together. Pour it into the dish and send them to table, after taking off the string that tied them in shape.
_Another way._
Cut steaks from the inside of the sirloin, about an inch thick, six inches long, and four or five broad: beat and rub them over with yolk of egg; strew on bread crumbs, parsley chopped, lemon-peel shred, pepper and salt, and chopped suet. Roll them up tight, skewer them; fry or brown them in a Dutch oven; stew them in some beef broth or gravy until tender. Thicken the gravy with a little flour; add ketchup, and a little lemon juice, and, to enrich it, add pickled mushrooms, hard yolks of eggs, and forcemeat b.a.l.l.s.
_Pickle for Beef._
To four gallons of water put a sufficient quant.i.ty of common salt; when quite dissolved, to bear an egg, four ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of bay salt, and half a pound of coa.r.s.e sugar. Boil this pickle for twenty minutes, skim it well, and strain it. When quite cold, put in your beef, which should be quite covered with the pickle, and in nine days it will be fit for use; or you may keep it three months, and it will not be too salt. The pickle must be boiled and well skimmed at the end of six weeks, and every month afterwards; it will then keep three months in summer and much longer in winter.
_Beef, to salt._
Into four gallons of water put one pound and a half of coa.r.s.e brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, and six pounds of bay salt; boil and skim as long as any sc.u.m rises. When cold, put in the meat, which must be quite covered with pickle: once in two months boil up the pickle again, skimming carefully. Add in the boiling two ounces of coa.r.s.e sugar, half a pound of bay salt, and the same pickle will be good for twelve months. It is incomparable for hung beef, hams, or neats"
tongues. When you take them out of this pickle, clean, dry, and put them in a paper bag, and hang them up in a dry place.
Pork may be pickled in the same manner.
_Beef, to salt._
Eight pounds of salt, six ounces of saltpetre, one pound and a half of brown sugar, four gallons of water; boil all together, skim and put on the beef when cold; the beef to be kept under the pickle with a weight.
_Beef, to dry._
Salt it in the same way as your hams; keep it in your pickle a fortnight or three weeks, according to its size; hang it up to dry for a few days; then have it smoked the same as hams.
_Hung Beef._ No. 1.
Take a round, ribs, rump, or sirloin; let it lie in common salt for a month, and well cover it with the brine. Rub a little saltpetre over it two or three days before it is hung up; observing, before it is put up to dry, to strew it over with bran or oatmeal, to keep it from the dust; or, which will answer the same purpose, wrap it up in strong coa.r.s.e paper. It is not to be smoked; only hang it up in the kitchen, and not too near the fire. The time of hanging to dry must be regulated by the quant.i.ty of air in which it is suspended, or left to the discretion of the person who has the care of it. The time which it must lie in water before dressing depends upon the driness of the meat. Half boil it in simmering water, and afterwards roast. It must not be cut till cold.
_Hung Beef._ No. 2.
Take the under-cliff of a small b.u.t.tock of beef, two ounces of common salt, and one ounce of saltpetre, well beaten together: put to it half a pint of vinegar with a sprig of thyme. Rub the beef with this pickle every morning for six days, and let it lie in it. Then dry it well with a cloth, and hang it up in the chimney for a fortnight. It must be made perfectly dry before it will be fit for eating; it should also be kept in a dry place.
_Hung Beef._ No. 3.
Take the tenderest part of beef, and let it hang in the cellar as long as you can, taking care that it is not in the least tainted. Take it down, wash it well in sugar and water. Dry six-pennyworth of saltpetre and two pounds of bay salt, and pound them fine; mix with it three large spoonfuls of brown sugar; rub your beef thoroughly with it. Take common salt, sufficient according to the size of the beef to salt it; let it lie closely covered up until the salts are entirely dissolved, which will be in seven or eight days. Turn it every day, the under part uppermost, and so on for a fortnight; then hang it where it may have a little warmth of the fire. It may hang in the kitchen a fortnight. When you use it, boil it in hay and pump water very tender: it will keep boiled two or three months, rubbing it with a greasy cloth, or putting it for two or three minutes into boiling water to take off any mouldiness.
_Beef for sc.r.a.ping._
To four pounds of lean b.u.t.tock of beef take one ounce of saltpetre and some common salt, in which let the meat lie for a month; then hang it to dry for three weeks. Boil it for grating when wanted.
_Italian Beef._
Take a round of beef, about fifteen or eighteen pounds; rub it well with three ounces of saltpetre, and let it lie for four hours in it. Then season it very well with beaten mace, pepper, cloves, and salt sufficient; let it then lie in that seasoning for twelve days; wash it well, and put it in the pot in which you intend to bake it, with one pound of suet shred fine, and thrown under and over it. Cover your pot and paste it down: let it stew six hours in its own liquor, and eat it cold.
_Red Beef._
Twelve pounds of ribs of beef boned, four ounces of bay salt, three ounces of saltpetre; beat them fine, and mix with half a pound of coa.r.s.e sugar, two pounds of common salt, and a handful of juniper berries bruised. Rub the beef well with this mixture, and turn it every day about three weeks or a month; bake it in a coa.r.s.e paste.
_Another way._
Take a piece of brisket of beef, about sixteen or eighteen pounds; make the pickle for it as follows:--saltpetre and bay salt, one pound and a half of each, one pound of coa.r.s.e brown sugar, and six pounds of common salt; add to these three gallons of water. Set it on the fire and keep it stirring, lest the salts should burn; as it boils skim it well till clear: boil it about an hour and a half. When it is quite cold, put in the beef, and let it lie in a pan that will hold it properly; turn it every day, and let it remain in about a fortnight. Take it out, and just wash it in clean water, and put it into the pot in which you stew it with some weak broth; then add slices of fat bacon, fat of veal, any pieces of fat meat, the more fat the better, especially of veal, also a pint of brandy, a full pint of wine, a handful of bay-leaves, a few cloves, and some blades of mace, about two large carrots, one dozen of large onions, a good bundle of sweet-herbs, some parsley, and two or three turnips. Stew it exceedingly gently for eight hours. The broth should cover the meat while it is stewing, and keep the slices of fat as much over it as you can; the seldomer you uncover the pot the better.
When you think it sufficiently tender, which try with your finger, take it off, and, though it may appear tender enough to fall to pieces, it will harden sufficiently when it grows cold. It should remain in the pot just as it is taken off the fire till it is very nearly if not quite cold. It will eat much better for being so left, and you will also not run the risk of breaking the beef in pieces, as you would by removing it whilst hot.
_Collar of Beef._
Bone the navel and navel round; make sufficient pickle to cover it, as strong as to bear an egg, with bay salt; beat two ounces of saltpetre very fine, and strew half of it on your beef before you lay it in your pickle. Then lay it in an earthen pan, and press it down in the liquor with a weight, as it must be all covered. Let it remain thus for four or five days, stirring it however once every day. Take it out, let the brine drain from it, lay it on a table, and season it with nutmeg, pepper, cloves, and mace, some parsley, thyme, and sweet marjoram, of each a little, and eight anchovies sliced; roll it up with these like brawn, and bind it quite fast with strong tape. Then put it into a pan, deep enough for it to stand upright; fill the pan with water, and cover it with paste. Make your oven very hot, put it in, and let it remain there five or six hours; then take it out, and, having removed the tape, roll it in a cloth; hang it up till cold. If you think it not salt enough, before you bake it, put a little salt with your spice and herbs, for baking in water abates much of its saltness.
_Another._
Salt a flank of beef with white salt, and let it lie for forty-eight hours. Wash it, and hang it in the wind to dry for twenty-four hours.
Then take pepper, salt, cloves, saltpetre, all beaten fine, and mix them together; rub the beef all over; roll it up hard, and tie it fast with tape. Put it in a pan, with a few bay-leaves, and four pounds of b.u.t.ter.
Cover the pot with rye paste, and bake it with household bread.
_Bisquet, to make._
Cut some slips of white paper; b.u.t.ter and place them at the bottom and sides of the pan you make your bisquet in; then cut thin collops of veal, or whatever meat you make it of; lay them on the paper, and cover them with forcemeat. Put in anything else you like, carrots, &c.; close the top with forcemeat and veal, and paper again; put it in the oven or stove, and, when done, and you want to dish it, turn the pan upside down from the dish; take the paper off, and pour good gravy on it.