The Myrtle Reed Cook Book

by Myrtle Reed

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY WAYS TO COOK MEAT AND POULTRY

BEEF

BROILED SIRLOIN STEAK

Have the steak cut thick and trim off the tough end. Broil carefully on a buttered gridiron, dot with butter, and serve.

BEEFSTEAK WITH FRENCH-FRIED ONIONS

Slice the onions thin, season with salt and pepper, and dredge thoroughly with flour. Put into a frying-basket and plunge into deep fat. Fry brown and crisp, drain, and serve with broiled steak.

STEAK BORDELAISE

Select a thick steak and broil carefully on a buttered gridiron. Chop a peeled clove of garlic very fine, or grate it. It cannot be too fine. Mix with three times the quantity of parsley finely minced and made to a smooth paste with melted butter. Spread over the steak and put in the oven for two minutes before serving.

BEEFSTEAK WITH OYSTER BLANQUETTE

Heat one quart of oysters with their own liquor, skim, and cook until the edges of the oysters curl. Thicken with flour cooked in butter, pour over a broiled steak, and serve very hot.

BEEFSTEAK WITH FRIED BANANAS

Broil the steak and put on the serving-platter. Dot with butter, sprinkle with minced parsley, and surround with bananas cut into quarters lengthwise and fried in butter. The bananas may be baked in the oven, basting with butter and sugar.

FRIED HAMBURG STEAK

Season chopped raw beef with grated onion, salt, minced sweet pepper and minced parsley. Mix with raw egg to bind and shape into flat cakes. Roll in crumbs, sauté in butter or drippings, and serve with [Tomato Sauce].

SPANISH STEAK

Chop two large onions fine and fry brown in butter. Fry a flank steak in the same fat, seasoning with pepper only. Take up, put into a buttered baking-pan or casserole, sprinkle with salt, spread with onion, pour over a can of tomatoes, and add a green pepper seeded and shredded. Cover tightly and cook slowly for an hour or more. Thicken the remaining liquid with browned flour to make a gravy.

STEWED STEAK WITH OYSTERS

Have two pounds of rump steak cut into small squares. Fry brown in butter, take up the meat, and cook a tablespoonful of flour in the fat remaining in the pan. Add a cupful of water or stock and the liquor drained from one pint of oysters. Cook until smooth and thick, stirring constantly, and put the steak into the sauce. Cover and cook until the steak is tender, then add a pint of oysters and cook until the edges curl. Take from the fire, add a tablespoonful of lemon-juice, and serve.

BRAISED FLANK STEAK

Pound a large flank steak flat. Make a dressing of seasoned crumbs and chopped salt pork or suet, moistening with melted butter or beaten egg. Spread on the steak, roll up, and tie in shape. Cut fine a carrot, a turnip, an onion, and a small bunch of parsley. Spread the roll of meat thickly with butter, season with pepper and salt and pour over and cook slowly in a very hot oven. Rub the vegetables through a sieve, skim off the fat, and make gravy, adding more stock or water if required.

STUFFED FLANK STEAK

Pound a large flank steak flat. Make a stuffing of equal parts of sausage meat and bread crumbs, seasoning with minced onion and thyme. Roll up, tie into shape, brown in hot fat, cover with stock or water, and let simmer for two hours. Skim and strain the gravy, thicken with flour browned in butter or in a little of the fat, season with mushroom catsup, and pour over the meat or serve separately.

STUFFED PRESSED STEAK

Pound a large round steak flat and tender. Spread with highly seasoned stuffing, roll into shape, and sew tightly in cheese-cloth. Boil for three hours, in salted water, take out and press under a heavy weight until cold. Take off the cloth, cut in thin slices, and serve with horseradish or made mustard.

ROAST BEEF

Have a rib roast of beef cut standing—that is, with the bones left in. Put into a hot oven without seasoning and when the outside is seared enough to prevent the escape of the juices, reduce the heat and cook slowly until done, basting frequently with the dripping. During the last half hour of cooking, dredge with salt, pepper, and flour. Skim the drippings and thicken for gravy, adding more liquid if required.

POT ROAST

Put a round of beef into a deep pot, add a small onion sliced, and a cupful of boiling water. Cover and cook slowly, allowing ten minutes to the pound. Take up the meat, rub with butter, dredge with flour, and brown it in a hot oven. Strain the gravy left in the pan, season with salt, pepper, and mushroom catsup, and thicken with flour browned in butter. Pour over the meat and serve.

RÉCHAUFFÉ OF BEEF À L’ESPAGNOLE

Cook together a can of tomatoes, a chopped onion, half a dozen sweet green peppers, seeded and cut into rings, and a tablespoonful of butter. Simmer for an hour. Reheat in the sauce thin slices of rare roast beef and thicken with one or two beaten eggs.

CANNELON OF BEEF

Chop fine two cupfuls of cold roast beef, season with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg, and moisten with beaten egg. Roll rich pie-crust into an oblong shape, spread with the meat, roll up, fasten the ends by pinching the pastry, rub with butter, and bake brown. Serve either hot or cold.

MACARONIED BEEF

Break macaroni into short lengths and cook in boiling salted water until tender. Drain, mix with [Tomato Sauce] and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Reheat slices of rare roast beef in a little stock, season to taste, pour the macaroni over, and serve.

BEEF OLIVES

Cut rare roast beef into thin slices and wrap each one around a thin slice of bacon. Fasten with toothpicks, and reheat in beef-gravy or stock. If stock is used, thicken it with browned flour, and season to taste.

RAGOUT OF BEEF

Put into a stewpan a pound of rare roast beef sliced thin, add three onions sliced, and salt and pepper to season. Cover with boiling water and simmer until the meat is very tender. Add half a cupful of tomatoes, half a cupful of chopped mushrooms, and a few capers. Thicken with flour rubbed smooth in a little cold stock or water, season with curry powder, stir and simmer ten minutes longer. Serve in a casserole.

JELLIED TONGUE

Boil a beef tongue very slowly in water to cover. Let cool in the liquid, drain, skin, and cut into thin slices. Dissolve a package of gelatine in one cupful of water. Heat thoroughly two cupfuls of the cooking liquid, one cupful of stock, and three tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Add two teaspoonfuls of sugar, two teaspoonfuls of beef extract, and the dissolved gelatine. If there is not enough liquid to cover the tongue, add boiling water to make the necessary quantity. Strain through cheese-cloth. Wet a mould in cold water, pour in a layer of the jelly, and when set, add a layer of the tongue. Repeat until the mould is full. At serving time turn out and garnish with parsley.

STEWED TONGUE WITH RAISINS

Boil a tongue in water to cover until it is so tender that a straw will pierce it. Let cool in the water in which it was boiled, drain, and remove the skin. The next day reheat the cooking liquid and let it simmer for three hours with half a cupful of stoned raisins, and the juice and grated peel of a lemon. Half an hour before serving thicken the gravy with browned flour and simmer the tongue in it until serving time. Pour boiling water over half a cupful of raisins and when they have swelled, drain and add to the gravy. Pour the gravy over the tongue and serve. If the sauce is too sour, add a little sugar. This is a German recipe and well worth trying.

BEEF TONGUE À L’ITALIENNE

Cut a cold boiled tongue into strips. Chop fine three onions, fry in butter, dredge with flour, add two teaspoonfuls of lemon-juice and a cupful of mushrooms. Pour into a baking-dish, cover with crumbs, dot with butter, and brown in the oven. Serve with spinach or spaghetti.

SPANISH STEW

Use a pound and a half of the ribs of beef. Put into a saucepan with two quarts of cold water, bring to the boil, and cook for two hours. Add a can of tomatoes, three large onions chopped fine, half a dozen cloves, a pinch each of sage and celery seed, one-fourth of the peel of an orange, two bay-leaves, a pod of red pepper, and two cupfuls of boiling water. Cook for half an hour, strain, skim, and thicken the gravy, season to taste, pour over the meat, and serve.

BEEF STEW WITH TOMATOES

Use three pounds of the round of beef and cut into small slices. Cover with a can of tomatoes, add a chopped onion, and salt, pepper, and powdered cloves to season. Cook slowly covered until the meat is done, add a little mushroom catsup, and serve.

BEEF STEW WITH DUMPLINGS

Have three or four pounds of the neck of beef cut into convenient pieces. Cover with cold water and add three each of carrots and onions, sliced thin. Season with salt and pepper and minced parsley, cover, and cook until the meat is nearly done. Sift two cupfuls of flour with two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and a pinch of salt. Add an egg well-beaten in enough milk to make a stiff batter. Steam the dumplings in buttered patty pans in a steamer over boiling water. Take out the meat and dumplings, thicken the gravy with flour browned in butter, pour over, and serve.

TRIPE IN CASSEROLE

Cut a pound and a half of tripe into squares and put into a casserole. Slice an onion and a carrot and fry in butter. Put into the casserole with a clove, a bay-leaf, a sprig of thyme, a tablespoonful of minced parsley, two cupfuls of stock, and half a wineglassful of white wine. Cover and cook slowly until very tender. Serve in the casserole.

BRAISED BEEF

Use a solid piece from the round or shoulder and have it larded with thin strips of salt pork. Slice an onion, a turnip, and a carrot. Lay the meat upon the vegetables, add four cupfuls of boiling water, cover the pan, and put into a hot oven. Allow twenty-five minutes to the pound and when half done season with salt and pepper. Baste frequently, and when the meat is done, add enough water or stock to make the required quantity of gravy. Thicken with browned flour, season to taste, pour over the meat, and serve. Beef ribs may be used.

BREADED LIVER

Have fresh beef liver cut into thin slices, cover with boiling water, and let stand for ten minutes. Fry slices of bacon crisp and drain. Season the bacon fat with black and red pepper, dip the liver into it, then into bread crumbs, and fry in the bacon fat. Garnish the liver with the fried bacon, and sprigs of parsley. Add to the fat in the pan one tablespoonful of vinegar and two of tomato catsup. Pour over the meat and serve.

LIVER ROLLS

Have fresh beef liver cut into thin slices. Cover with boiling water, drain, wipe dry, remove the skin, and season with salt and pepper. Put a thin slice of salt pork or bacon on each slice of liver, roll up and fasten with a string. Brown in hot fat, dredge with flour, cover with boiling water or stock, and cook for half an hour. Take off the strings, season to taste, and serve, thickening the gravy more if required.

ROASTED BEEF HEART

Stuff the heart with highly seasoned crumbs, mixing with a beaten egg to bind. Season with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and roast covered for an hour and a half, basting frequently with melted butter and water.

BEEF KIDNEY SAUTÉ

Chop an onion fine and fry brown in butter. Add a kidney which has been soaked for five minutes in boiling salted water and cut into squares. Cook for five minutes, sprinkle with flour, add a little stock, cook until the sauce is thick, and serve immediately, sprinkling with minced parsley.