Braised Beef. Time—3 hours.
5 lbs. topside, ½ lb. smoked beef, 3 oz. dripping, 1 medium-sized onion, 1 small carrot, 1 turnip, 3 to 4 sticks celery, 1 pint water, a few whole peppers and allspice, 1 tablespoonful vinegar, 1 tablespoonful flour; salt to taste.
Melt the dripping, cut up the smoked beef into thin wedge-like strips and insert them into the meat with a knife. Brown both sides of the meat in the dripping, add the vegetables, seasoning and water, and let all stew very slowly for 2½ hours. ¼ hour before serving, take out the meat, keep it hot; mix the flour, vinegar and 1 tablespoonful water to a paste, pour it into the stew-pan and thicken it, strain gravy over meat and serve.