Take the thin part of a brisket of beef, score the skin at the top; cross and take off the under skin, then take out the bones, season it highly with mace, a little salt, and a little whole pepper, rub it on both sides, let it lay all night, make broth of the bones, skim the fat clean off, put in as much water as will cover it well, let it stew over a slow fire four or five hours, with a bunch of sweet herbs and an onion cut in quarters; turn the beef over every hour, and when you find it tender take it out of the broth and drain it very well, having made a little good strong gravy. A ragoo with sweet-breads cut into pieces, pullets tenderly boil'd and cut in long pieces; take truffles and morels, if you have any mushrooms, with a little claret, and throw in your beef, let it stew a quarter of an hour in the ragoo, turning it over sometimes, then take out your beef, and thicken your ragoo with a lump of butter and a little flour. Garnish your dish with horse-radish and pickles, lay the ragoo round your beef, and a little upon the top; so serve it up.
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 butter. 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 quantity of onion, besides pepper and salt to the taste. Make into small balls, wet them on the outside with eggs, roll in grated cracker or fine bread crumbs. Fry these force meat balls 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.
Take a pair of large fine fowls. Cut them up, wash the pieces, and season them with pepper and salt. Make a good paste in the proportion of a pound and a half of minced suet to three pounds of flour. Let there be plenty of paste, as it is always much liked by the eaters of pot pie. Roll out the paste not very thin, and cut most of it into long squares. Butter the sides of a pot, and line them with paste nearly to the top. Lay slices of cold ham at the bottom of the pot, and then the pieces of fowl, interspersed all through with squares of paste, and potatoes pared and quartered. Lay a lid of paste all over the top, leaving a hole in the middle. Pour in about a quart of water, cover the pot, and boil it slowly but steadily for two hours. Half an hour before you take it up, put in through the hole in the centre of the crust, some bits of butter rolled in flour, to thicken the gravy. When done put the pie on a large dish, and pour the gravy over it. You may intersperse it all through with cold ham. A pot pie may be made of ducks, rabbits, squirrels, or venison. Also of beef-steaks.
Two pounds of the round of beef, the rind of half a lemon, three sprigs of parsley, one teaspoonful of salt, barely one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper, a quarter of a nutmeg, two table-spoonfuls of melted butter, one raw egg and half a teaspoonful of onion juice. Chop meat, parsley and lemon rind very fine. Add other ingredients, and mix thoroughly. Shape, into a roll, about three inches in diameter and six in length. Roll in buttered paper, and bake thirty minutes, basting with butter and water. When cooked, place on a hot dish, gently unroll from the paper, and serve with Flemish sauce poured over it. You may serve tomato or mushroom sauce if you prefer either.
Take fat pork cut in slices or mince, season it with pepper, salt, sweet marjoram and thyme, cloves, mace and nutmeg, make holes in the beef and stuff it the night before cooked; put some bones across the bottom of the pot to keep from burning, put in one quart Claret wine, one quart water and one onion; lay the round on the bones, cover close and stop it round the top with dough; hang on in the morning and stew gently two hours; turn it, and stop tight and stew two hours more; when done tender, grate a crust of bread on the top and brown it before the fire; scum the gravy and serve in a butter boat, serve it with the residue of the gravy in the dish.
This is a winter dish; it is most sustaining, and once made, it can be kept hot for hours without spoiling. Make a purée of lentils or peas, and season it with pepper and salt. Mince your beef with an equal quantity of peeled chestnuts, add chopped parsley, a dust of nutmeg or a few cloves. If you have any cheap red wine pour it over the mince till it is well moistened. If you have no red wine, use gravy. If you have no gravy, use milk. Let all heat up in the oven for ten minutes, then sprinkle in some currants or sultanas. Take the dish you wish to serve it in, put the stew in the middle, and place the purée round it. If the mince is moist it can be kept by the fire till required, or the dish can be covered with another one and placed in a carrying-can, taken out to skating or shooting parties.
Fare rather small potatoes, and boil for twelve minutes in salted water. Take up and put on the grate with roast beef. Bake twenty-five or thirty minutes. Arrange on the dish with the beef, or, if you prefer, on a separate dish.
Slice up the tomatoes and put them into a saucepan with the butter, herbs, pepper, salt, sugar, and gravy. Stir about until it becomes quite a pulp; then rub through a sieve, season to taste, and let it get quite cold. Cut the beef into thin slices and lay it in a saucepan, pour over the cold sauce and let it get hot through, very slowly. Arrange on a hot dish, and garnish with fried sippets of bread or toast.
Cut in slices the remains of any cold meat, such as pork, beef, veal, ham, or mutton. Melt in a pan a bit of salt butter the size of a walnut, and put in it an onion cut into fine slices; let it get brown in the hot butter. In another pan put a larger piece of butter rolled in a soup- spoonful of flour; add to it the onion and butter, and add enough water to prevent the sauce from getting very thick. Add, if you wish it, a teaspoonful of meat-extract and a pinch of salt. Have ready some mashed potatoes, but let them be very light. Place the slices of meat in a fireproof dish, pour the sauce on them, then the mashed potatoes, and put the dish in the oven, all well heated through. This is called in Belgium "un philosophe." [Paquerette.]
Take three pounds of the rump of beef, put it into a pretty deep pan upon one onion, one sliced carrot, some thyme, and a bay-leaf, three table- spoonfuls of dripping, salt, and pepper. Put it on the top of the fire, and when it comes fully to the boil, put it to the side, and allow it to simmer nicely for an hour and a half. Dress it on a dish and serve the sauce separately.
