The above description is applied for the Kitchen of the Wealthy, but I must confess I do not object to a small piece of beef for my Kitchen at Home; I should proceed precisely as above, only procuring a piece of not more than eight, ten, or twelve pounds in weight; put a little water in the dripping-pan, place the beef upon a spit papered as before, put it very near the fire for a few minutes, rub over with butter, then put it back at the distance of two feet; let roast, if weighing from ten to twelve pounds, an hour and a half to two hours, depending much upon the fire, of which any person may judge with or without practice; take it up, dress upon your dish, then have the contents of your dripping-pan in a basin, from which extract the whole of the fat, and pour the gravy over the chine-bones, it will be very good, and save the trouble and expense of making gravy; a couple of Yorkshire puddings, of two eggs each, are very excellent cooked under the meat; before I had a smoke-jack in my small kitchen I used to roast very well with a bit of string. For the cottage kitchen, where there is no smoke-jack provided, you may roast very well with a piece of worsted or string, by hooking it to the meat, and then suspending it to a bracket fixed under the mantel-piece, which will enable you to remove it to any distance you think proper from the fire, making a tea-tray, at the distance of three feet from the fire, act as a screen; the bottle-jacks are not bad, but soon get out of repair.
No. 2. Ribs of Beef. A piece of from twenty to twenty-five pounds makes a very pretty joint; trim neatly by sawing off the tips of the chine-bones to make it stand flat, saw also about three inches from the tips of the ribs, merely sawing through the bones, which detach from the meat, leaving a flap, which fold under and fix with wooden skewers, not, however, pulling it too tight, or it would cause the skin to crack in roasting, which would produce a very bad effect; roast as directed for the sirloin, from two hours and a half to three hours would be sufficient, unless very thick. For a cold joint the ribs are better than the sirloin, which last should always be eaten hot.
At home I often have a piece of ribs of beef weighing from six to eight pounds, and roast by passing a very thin spit through, and placing it down before a moderate fire; or, if in a small cottage, hang it up with string as for the small sirloin; it would take from an hour and five minutes to an hour and a quarter roasting, being perpendicular you may baste it slightly, as it does not receive much nourishment from its own fat.
No. 3. Rump of Beef. This is also a very delicate joint, but can only be had to perfection in the winter months, as it requires hanging from three weeks to a month before it is in readiness to roast to perfection; procure one of from thirty to thirty-five pounds in weight, trim neatly, leaving all the fat, for, taking so long to roast, should it be short of fat it would go to table quite dry; roast it in a cradle-spit as directed for sirloin, but keeping it still further from the fire, and giving it from four hours and a half to five hours roasting, it might also be roasted in paste as directed for haunch of venison (No. 222), or wrap it up in several sheets of paper well buttered, and browned by taking off the paste twenty minutes before removing from the fire.
This bold joint never makes its appearance in my Kitchen at Home, but I have frequently used the piece of fillet attached to it, which weighs from three to five pounds; I leave about an inch of fat upon it, pass a small spit through, and roast from three quarters of an hour to an hour; for gravy I proceed as for the sirloin. Cold potatoes, previously boiled, put under it in the dripping-pan whilst roasting, and turned occasionally, are very excellent.
No. 4. Baron of Beef. It is an old saying that two extremes often meet, so with me, I leave my five pounds’ joint roasting and, like Gulliver, make a step towards the empire of the giant. This is, indeed, a colossal joint, which at first sight would put a modest fire out of conceit, my smoke-jack out of order, and, above all, drive my few guests’ appetites from their frugal stomachs; they not being initiated in the grandeur or importance of a civic or aristocratic banquet would consider it a mighty dish of vulgarity. But stay, friends, I would observe grandeur and magnitude are far from being vulgar; to prove that my assertion is correct I have the opinion of ages, for it is a dish almost as old as England herself. I have before stated that Charles the Second gave the title and importance to the sirloin, and I have no doubt the baron owes its origin also to some such cause or great event, which I will attempt to discover for the information of some of my readers who, like myself, at present may be entirely ignorant of its origin, which I feel assured will prove interesting.
A baron of beef is generally cut from a small ox, and includes the two rumps and two sirloins with one of the rib bones on each side; it must be trussed precisely as for a saddle of mutton; pass a spit, which of course must not be too large, through the spinal-marrow-bone, then wrap the beef up in paste as for a haunch of venison (No. 540), only a little thicker, add also more paper, set it three feet from a brisk fire, pouring fat over the paper to prevent its catching fire, twenty minutes afterwards remove the spit two feet farther from the fire, inclose it well with the fire-screen, and roast eight or nine hours, keeping it turned by hand; half an hour before it is done take off the paste and paper and give the beef a fine gold colour, when take up, dress in a dish with gravy under and serve. The ancient style was to serve a representation of St. George and the dragon, cut from vegetables, upon the top, fresh salad also of every description used to be placed around, but the whole was obliged to be removed at the commencement of carving.
Having promised my readers that I would make all possible inquiry relating to the origin of the inviting joint called baron of beef, a careful search into “Hone” and others, has not, I regret to say, been attended with quite a favorable result, and the only information which I can at present obtain is the legendary one that King John, after signing Magna Charta at Runnymede, partook of a repast in the company of his barons, consisting of the saddle and part of the ribs of beef roasted, and that hence arose the saying “baron of beef.” Now this appears very much like the traveller’s tale that had but one point in its favour, namely, that no one present could possibly contradict it.
No. 5. Round of Beef. “Here,” says John Bull, with a good-humoured countenance (standing near a table upon which was a round of beef being prepared for dressing, clapping his hands upon his knees, and bending with no little difficulty his colossal stomach), “do you know, my excellent friend,” says he to me, “I fear you cannot cook that glorious dish to perfection, for I have not yet forgotten your seven hours’ dressing of a leg of mutton (p. 193), so if you are not above receiving a lesson I will give you one which will enable you to dress this all-important dish to perfection; for I prize it as I do my own roast beef of old England, and you must be aware that after the centuries of practice I have had that I must understand some little about it. Well, in the first place, the quality of the meat has a good deal to do with it, of which you have given a fair description, I therefore pass it over; but to proceed: it must be cut pretty freely from the knuckle and placed in a brine-tub, cover well with salt, rub it well in, leave it until the next day, when again rub it with the salt and brine created by the gravy from the meat, rubbing well every other day until it has remained a fortnight, that is, if of a good size, weighing from thirty to thirty-five pounds, if larger or smaller, more or less time, which must be left to your own good judgment, then take it out of the pickle, let drain twenty minutes, take out and form it of a good shape, folding the fat round, which fix with skewers, tying it round with a few yards of very wide tape, tie it up in a thin cloth, and place it in a large stock-pot with plenty of cold water, set upon a good fire and when beginning to boil draw it to the corner, where let simmer five hours, but two hours before it is done put in eight fine carrots, scraped and cut into six or eight pieces, twelve turnips (peeled), and two suet puddings, weighing from two and a half to three pounds each, these articles would, perhaps, cause the water to cease boiling, if so, place it again quite over the fire until it does boil; when done take out the round, let drain ten minutes, take it from the cloth, detach the tape, take out the skewers, replacing them as you take them out with long silver skewers, dress upon a large hot-water dish, and pour over about a quart of the liquor it was boiled in, cut a large slice from the top about two inches and a half in thickness, dress the carrots and turnips tastefully around and serve, with the puddings upon a separate dish, sending one after the other, they will eat much lighter. When upon the table it must be carved with a regular round-of-beef knife (very sharp) in slices not exceeding the thickness of half-a-crown piece, assisting each guest to a slice, also give one third fat, with a little of the carrot and turnip, but never dig the underdone part from the centre to oblige any one, for they that cannot eat from a joint well-cooked and fairly carved are not worthy of having one set before them. Some persons like them, when salted, to cut red quite through, I do not admire it, but it is done by adding two ounces of sal prunella and half a pound of saltpetre to every fifteen pounds of salt used in the pickling. When a round of beef is very large some persons place a tin tube in the centre to boil it, I do not think it a bad plan, as it causes it to cook more regular.”
After receiving the above useful lesson, and being desirous of improving my profession in all its branches, I remembered that amongst the number of joints boiled to serve cold for large civic, agricultural, or benevolent anniversary dinners, the round of beef was the most prominent, and having seen it standing in dishes to get cold, with the dish filled with the gravy that runs from it, particularly if a little overdone, caused me to hit upon the following expedient to prevent the meat losing so much of its succulence: fill two large tubs with cold water, into which throw a few pounds of rough ice, and when the round is done throw it, cloth and all, into one of the tubs of ice water, let remain one minute, when take out and put it into the other tub, fill the first tub again with water, and continue the above process for about twenty minutes, then set it upon a dish, leaving the cloth on until the next day, or until quite cold; when opened the fat will be as white as possible, besides having saved the whole of the gravy. If no ice, spring water will answer the same purpose, but will require to be more frequently changed; the same mode would be equally successful with the aitch-bone.