Brazilian Stew. Time—3 hours.
1 lb. beef, 1 carrot, 1 turnip, herbs, pepper and salt to taste, ½ gill vinegar.
Cut the meat into neat pieces, dip each piece in the vinegar, and pack closely in a saucepan. Sprinkle with pepper and salt. Cut the vegetables into slices, and put them with the herbs into the saucepan. Close the lid, and steam 2½ hours, stirring occasionally.
Braised Beef. Time—3 hours.
5 lbs. topside, ½ lb. smoked beef, 3 oz. dripping, 1 medium-sized onion, 1 small carrot, 1 turnip, 3 to 4 sticks celery, 1 pint water, a few whole peppers and allspice, 1 tablespoonful vinegar, 1 tablespoonful flour; salt to taste.
Melt the dripping, cut up the smoked beef into thin wedge-like strips and insert them into the meat with a knife. Brown both sides of the meat in the dripping, add the vegetables, seasoning and water, and let all stew very slowly for 2½ hours. ¼ hour before serving, take out the meat, keep it hot; mix the flour, vinegar and 1 tablespoonful water to a paste, pour it into the stew-pan and thicken it, strain gravy over meat and serve.
To Clarify Dripping.
Pour the dripping from the pan into a basin of cold water. When cool lift off the cake of clarified dripping, scrape away the sediment from the bottom, and wipe dry.
To Clarify Fat.
Cut up any scraps of cooked or uncooked fat into small pieces, place in a saucepan, add just sufficient cold water to cover them, stir often, and simmer with the lid off till nothing is left of the pieces of fat but brownish scraps. Strain into a basin, and when cold, a hard white cake will be formed, which will keep good some time. This fat makes excellent pastry, and can be used for frying.