Insert twelve large lardoons in a four-pound piece of beef cut from the round. Make incisions for lardoons by running through the meat a large skewer. Season with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and brown the entire surface in pork fat. Put on a trivet in kettle, surround with one-third cup each carrot, turnip, celery, and onion cut in dice, sprig of parsley, bit of bay leaf, and water to half cover meat. Cover closely, and cook slowly four hours, keeping liquor below the boiling-point. Remove to hot platter. Strain liquor, thicken and season to serve as a gravy. When beef is similarly prepared (with exception of lardoons and vegetables), and cooked in smaller amount of water, it is called Smothered Beef, or Pot Roast. A bean-pot (covered with a piece of buttered paper, tied firmly down) is the best utensil to use for a Pot Roast.
Pressed Beef Flank
Wipe, remove superfluous fat, and roll a flank of beef. Put in a kettle, cover with boiling water, and add one tablespoon salt, one-half teaspoon peppercorns, a bit of bay leaf, and a bone or two which may be at hand. Cook slowly until meat is in shreds; there should be but little liquor in kettle when meat is done. Arrange meat in a deep pan, pour over liquor, cover, and press with a heavy weight. Serve cold, thinly sliced.
Beef Stew with Dumplings
| Aitchbone, weighing 5 lbs. | |
| 4 cups potatoes, cut in ¼ inch slices | |
| Turnip | ⅔ cup each, cut in half-inch cubes |
| Carrot | |
| ½ small onion, cut in thin slices | |
| ¼ cup flour | |
| Salt | |
| Pepper | |
Wipe meat, remove from bone, cut in one and one-half inch cubes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dredge with flour. Cut some of the fat in small pieces and try out in frying-pan. Add meat and stir constantly, that the surface may be quickly seared; when well browned, put in kettle, and rinse frying-pan with boiling water, that none of the goodness may be lost. Add to meat remaining fat, and bone sawed in pieces; cover with boiling water and boil five minutes, then cook at a lower temperature until meat is tender (time required being about three hours). Add carrot, turnip, and onion, with salt and pepper the last hour of cooking. Parboil potatoes five minutes, and add to stew fifteen minutes before taking from fire. Remove bones, large pieces of fat, and then skim. Thicken with one-fourth cup flour, diluted with enough cold water to pour easily. Pour in deep hot platter, and surround with dumplings. Remnants of roast beef are usually made into a beef stew; the meat having been once cooked, there is no necessity of browning it. If gravy is left, it should be added to the stew.
Dumplings
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt