To Hash Cold Meat
The best way of re-cooking cold roast meat, (veal, beef, or pork,) is to hash it, cutting it into mouthfuls, and stewing it in its own gravy, without a drop of water. For this purpose, save as much as you can of the dripping or gravy that fell from it when roasting. When you have done basting the roast meat, skim off all the fat from the surface, and strain the gravy through a small sieve. What is left of it, should be carefully set away in a cold place. Next day, when it has congealed into a cake, scrape it with a knife on both sides. If not wanted for immediate use, cut it in pieces, and put it up in a jar well covered. Use it (instead of water) for stews and hashes; and if well seasoned the meat will be found nearly as good (for a breakfast dish,) as if not previously cooked. Whenever it is possible, make your hashes without any water; and if you have saved no gravy, substitute lard, or fresh butter. But gravy or drippings of the same meat is best. A hash of cold meat, stewed merely in water, and with no seasoning but salt and pepper, is a poor thing. Cold potatos, when re-cooked, always remain hard and indigestible. In all cookery it is best to use fresh vegetables, even if the meat has been previously drest. Cold meat is of no use for soups or pies. It is better to slice it, and eat it cold—or, better still to give it the poor. Roast beef or mutton, if very much underdone, may be sliced and broiled on a gridiron, and well seasoned with pepper. Cold roast pork is best sliced plain, and eaten cold. Ham also.