The meat, when preparing, should be cut into pieces about as large as the palm of your hand, and an inch thick, omitting the fat. Small clams may be substituted for oysters.
TOMATO STEWED BEEF.—
Take large ripe tomatos, and scald them, to make the skins peel off easily. Pare, quarter them, and sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper. Lay in a stew-pan some thin tender beef-steaks, lamb, mutton-chops, or cutlets of fresh pork. Bury the meat in the tomatos, and add some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour and a little sugar to take off the extreme acid of the tomatos; also, an onion or two, very finely minced. Let the whole cook slowly till the meat is thoroughly done, and the tomatos dissolved to a pulp. Send it to table all on the same dish.
A rabbit or chicken, (cut apart as for carving,) is very good stewed with tomatos. Freshly killed venison is excellent for this stew.
Many persons mix grated bread with tomato stew. We think it weakens the taste—a thing not desirable in any cooking.
This stew must not have a drop of water in it; the tomatos will give out sufficient liquid to cook the meat. There is not a more wholesome dish.
BEEF STEWED WITH ONIONS.—
Take a square piece of beef from the sirloin, where there is no bone or fat. With a sharp knife make very deep incisions all over it, but not quite so deep as to cut it through to the bottom. Prepare a forcemeat by peeling and boiling some onions. Then drain and mince them. Mix in with the onions some fine bread-crumbs, and some chopped sweet-marjoram, (seasoning with powdered nutmeg and mace,) and fill tightly all the incisions. Put into the bottom of a stew-pan some drippings of roast-beef, or else a piece of fresh butter rolled in flour. Lay the seasoned meat upon it. Let it stew till completely cooked, and no redness to be found in any part of it. Serve it up hot, and send it to table in its own gravy.