ANOTHER WAY
Take about two and a half pounds of the thicker part of the shin, place it in an iron pot with two tablespoonfuls of drippings. Turn it as it browns. When brown enough put it in a stew-pan; add enough water to cover it, a large onion stuck full of cloves, and half a carrot cut into slices. Let it simmer four hours, remove the meat and onion and carrot, thicken the liquor, and serve in a dish large enough to allow plenty of gravy. If, after removing the meat, the liquor appears too rich, pour off the fat before thickening.
Round Steak. Round steak can be used instead of shin for both these receipts, but costs just double the price. It requires far less cooking and calls for less care, and if carefully and slowly stewed for one hour makes a very appetizing dish.
Another very appetizing dish, much used by people of small means in England, is beefsteak pudding, for which it is also possible to use the shin, by stewing it beforehand, and cutting it up when perfectly tender into small pieces; but it is usually made of round steak as follows:
BEEFSTEAK PUDDING
Line a pudding-basin with a plain crust made of chopped suet and flour mixed with water, and simply rolled out once an inch thick; cut up a pound of round steak, and sprinkle with flour, pepper, and salt; chop a small onion fine, put all into the lined basin, add a cup of water, cover over with the suet crust, and tie it in a well-floured cloth. Have a saucepan full of water boiling rapidly, and put the basin in, the opening downwards; leave the lid off the saucepan, and let it boil two and one half hours, adding water if it boils away. A sheep’s kidney cut up small adds richness to the gravy.
Menus. Sometimes, where great economy must be practised, and the sum allowed for the entire meal for three people is only sixty cents, it is difficult to remember just such accessories in the way of vegetables as are as inexpensive in their way as the meat, and for this reason the following very modest menus are offered as samples of what can be accomplished in the way of very inexpensive dinners.
DINNER No. 1
POTATO BALLS, SCOTCH BROTH, TURNIPS WITH WHITE SAUCE, TAPIOCA AND APPLES