A SPICED ROUND OF BEEF.—
Take a large prime round of beef; extract the bone, and close the hole. Tie a tape all round it to keep it firm. Take four ounces of finely powdered saltpetre, and rub it well into the beef. Put the meat into a very clean pickling-tub that has a close-fitting cover, and let it rest for two days. Next rub it thoroughly with salt, and return it to the tub for eight days. Then take an ounce of powdered mace, a large nutmeg powdered, a half-ounce of pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of powdered cloves, (not more.) Mix these spices well together, and then mix them with a pound of fine brown sugar. Rub the spices and sugar thoroughly all over the beef, which will be ready to cook next day. Then fill the opening with minced sweet herbs, sweet basil, and sweet marjoram, laid in loosely and lightly. Take half a pound of nice beef-suet. Divide it in two, and flatten each half of the suet by beating it with a rolling-pin. Lay it in a broad earthen pan, with one sheet of suet under the meat, and the other pressed over it. Above this place a sheet of clean white paper, and over all put a large plate. Set it in a hot oven, and bake it five hours or more, till by probing it to the bottom, with a sharp knife, you find it thoroughly cooked. It is excellent as a cold standing dish, for a large family. When it is to be eaten cold, boil fresh cabbage to go with it. Also parsnips and carrots.
Cabbage.—For this beef, red cabbage is very nice, cut small, and stewed with butter and tarragon vinegar.
A-LA-MODE BEEF.—
Remove the bone from a fine round of fresh beef, and also take off the fat. For a round that weighs ten pounds, make seasoning or stuffing in the following proportions. Half a pound of beef suet; half a pound of grated bread-crumbs; the crumbled yolks of three hard-boiled eggs; a large bundle of sweet marjoram, the leaves chopped; another of sweet basil; four onions minced small, a large table-spoonful of mixed mace and nutmeg, powdered. Season slightly with salt and cayenne. Stuff this mixture into the place from whence you took out the bone. Make numerous deep cuts or incisions about the meat, and stuff them also. Skewer the meat into a proper shape, and secure its form by tying it round with tape. Put it into a clean iron oven or bake-pan, and pour over it a pint of port wine. Put on the lid, and bake the beef slowly for five or six hours, or till it is thoroughly done all through.
If the meat is to be eaten hot, skim all the fat from the gravy; into which, after it is taken off the fire, stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs.
If onions are disliked you can omit them, and substitute minced oysters.