Beef à la Mode.
Six or seven pounds from a round of beef are generally selected; however, there is a cut from the shoulder which answers very well for an à-la-mode beef. If the round is used, extract the bone. Make several deep incisions into the meat with a thin sharp knife; press into most of them lardoons of pork about half an inch square, and two or three inches long; in the other cuts, and especially the one from whence the bone was extracted, stuff almost any kind of force-meat, the simplest being as follows: Mix some soaked bread with a little chopped beef-suet, onion, any herbs, such as parsley, thyme, or summer savory; a little egg, Cayenne pepper, salt, and cloves. Press the beef into shape, round or oval, and tie it securely.
Put trimmings of pork into the bottom of a large saucepan or iron pot, and when hot put over the meat; brown it all over by turning all sides to the bottom of the pot, which should now be uncovered. This will take about half an hour. Next sprinkle over a heaping table-spoonful of flour, and brown that also. Put a small plate under the beef, to prevent burning, and fill the pot with enough boiling water to half cover the meat; throw over a saucerful of sliced onions, carrots, some turnips, if you like, and some parsley. There are iron pots, with tight iron covers, which are made expressly for this kind of cooking; but if you have none of this description, you will now have to cover the one used with enough covers, towels, etc., to make it tight as possible, so that the meat may be cooked in the steam. Let it cook for four or five hours, never allowing the water to stop boiling. Watch it, that it may not get too low, and replenish it with boiling water. When the meat is done, put it on a hot platter; strain the gravy, skim off every particle of fat, add two or three table-spoonfuls of port or sherry wine, also pepper and salt, if necessary, and pour this gravy and selected pieces of the vegetables over the meat.
Baked onions (see page 201), placed around the beef as a garnish, complete the dish for a course at dinner.
Braised Beef (No. 1).—New York Cooking-school.
Ingredients: Six-pound loin of beef, half a pound of pork, three-fourths of a cupful of flour, two-ounce onion (one small onion), three-ounce carrot (half a large carrot), one-ounce turnip, one-third of a bunch of parsley, one sprig of thyme, two cloves, three allspice, six pepper-corns, half of a bay-leaf.
Trim the beef into a shapely piece; stick a knife quite through different portions of it, in which apertures press slices or lardoons of pork, half an inch square, and three or four inches long. Tie the beef into shape with twine. Lay scraps of pork on the bottom of a saucepan, place it on a brisk fire, and when hot put in the beef; brown it all over by turning the different sides to the bottom of the uncovered saucepan. It will take about half an hour to brown it. Now sprinkle over the beef three-fourths of a cupful of flour (three ounces), also the vegetables and spices; and brown all this by again turning the meat over the fire. When they are of fine color, pour over a tumblerful of claret, which reduce to half; then fill the saucepan with boiling stock or water; cover it tightly, and place it in a hot oven for two and a half hours. When done, put the beef on a hot platter.
Strain the sauce in which the beef was cooked, take off every particle of fat, season with more salt, if necessary; pour about half a cupful of it over the beef in the platter, and serve the remainder in a sauce-boat.
The beef may be surrounded with green pease, prepared as follows: Wash a can of American pease in cold water, then put them over the fire with half a cupful of boiling water, salt, pepper, one ounce of butter, and one salt-spoonful of sugar. When the pease have simmered a minute, strain them from their liquor, and place them in the platter around the beef.