Stew.—(a) Cook some potatoes and onions in stock, or with some of the jelly from the tin, until thoroughly done and falling to pieces; add salt and pepper, and about 10 minutes before serving put in some small slices of the meat; simmer gently just long enough to warm them through, and serve with the potatoes and onions all mixed together.
(b) Slice 2 large Portugal onions in thin slices, and fry them a golden brown; simmer them in ½ pint thin gravy for 20 minutes; then add 2 lb. tinned mutton finely minced, pepper and salt to taste. Thicken the stew with a dessertspoonful of corn flour, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut; add a few drops of colouring, if it is necessary, to make the stew look a nice colour, and serve very hot on toasted bread.
Vienna Steak.—Turn out a 2 lb. tin of Australian fresh beef, scrape all the fat and jelly from it, melt the jelly in a saucepan, and use the fat, if any, to fry the steak with. Mince the meat finely, and pepper and salt it to taste; mix with it some finely-chopped onion, fried a light brown, and form it into pats the size of the hand and 2 in. thick; brush the pats—which should be more oblong than round, and slightly irregular in form—with egg and bread crumbs, and fry to a dark brown in the fat. Pile them on a hot dish, and surround them with fried onions and good gravy, in which the melted jelly forms a part. The pats should be strewed over with chopped parsley just before they are sent to table.
Vinaigrette.—Cut some Australian mutton in slices, lay them in a dish, make a sauce of 2 tablespoonfuls oil, 1 dessertspoonful vinegar, chopped parsley, a little celery cut small, sliced potatoes, sliced cucumber (when not obtainable, beetroot), and put over the mutton.
Beef (Bœuf). A la financière.—This is simply grenadins of beef served with a ragout à la financière in the centre of the dish. It requires some little care and taste to cook properly. The best part of the beef for the purpose is the undercut, which should be neatly trimmed, all fat and skin removed, and then cut up into shapely pieces about ⅓ in. in thickness, and shaped something like a flat pear—a long oval, rather pointed at one end. These grenadins or fillets should then be finely larded, and afterwards braised by putting them in a stewpan on some slices of bacon, with a carrot and onion sliced, a little celery, if in season, some sweet herbs, parsley, spices, salt and pepper to taste, and a little stock. When sufficiently cooked, take them out, drain, and glaze them, then serve round a ragout made with truffles, cockscombs, quenelles of chicken, mushrooms, &c., all previously cooked, then tossed together in some good brown gravy, highly flavoured with chicken or game, mushrooms, and white wine.
A la Macédoine.—Cut some rump steak in slices a little more than ½ in. thick, trim them all to the same size in the shape of cutlets, and lard them thickly on one side with fine lardoons of bacon fat. Lay them out, the larded side uppermost, into a flat pan, and put into it as much highly flavoured rich stock or gravy as will come up to the grenadins without covering them. Cover the pan, and place it in the oven to braise gently for an hour. Then remove the cover, baste the grenadins with the gravy, and let them remain uncovered in the oven till the larding has taken colour; they are then ready. Take equal quantities of carrots and turnips cut into the shape of olives, also equal quantities of peas, of green haricot beans, of asparagus points, and of small sprigs of cauliflowers. Boil all these vegetables in salted water, then melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, add a tablespoonful of flour, stir in sufficient milk to make a sauce, add pepper, salt, and a little grated nutmeg. Put all the vegetables into this sauce, of which you should have just enough to make them hold together; toss them gently in it to make them quite hot. Dress them in the middle of a dish, round them dispose the grenadins in a circle, and, having removed the superfluous fat from their gravy, pour this round the grenadins, and serve.
Alamode.—Rub your beef with saltpetre, if it is a large round it will take 3 oz., and the same weight of coarse sugar, then salt it very thick. Strew some black pepper over it and turn it frequently. Do not salt in too wide a pan, as the beef should be nearly covered with the brine. Let it be 3 weeks in salt; then wash it, and rub over it some pounded cloves and mace, and Jamaica pepper, then bind it up, and put some chopped suet into the pan, and cover it with water, and bake it. You must have it from the oven hot, as it will want binding up afresh. Bind with strong wide tape, unbleached.
À la Napolitaine.—Take a piece of fresh silverside, make 2 or 3 holes in it, and insert in each a piece of bacon rolled in powdered sweet herbs and pepper. Tie up the meat with string carefully. Take a piece of the fat of bacon, mince it with a meat chopper, adding to it a clove of garlic, an onion, some parsley, thyme, and marjoram. When the whole is finely minced and well amalgamated, put it into a saucepan with the meat, and keep turning the latter until it is browned on all sides; then moisten with plenty of French tomato sauce, diluted with a little stock, add salt to taste, and let the meat stew slowly till done. Remove the string and serve with macaroni, dressed with the sauce, round the meat. Having boiled the macaroni, mix with it a fair allowance of the above sauce, strained and freed from any superfluity of fat, and plenty of grated Parmesan cheese. The macaroni should be mixed or dressed in a warmed tureen, not in a saucepan on the fire.
Boiled.—Take a piece of the round, silverside, aitch-bone, or brisket; skewer it if absolutely necessary, and tie it up with string. Put it into a saucepan, cover it with cold water, and let it come gradually to the boil, removing the scum as it rises, and throwing in a small quantity of cold water from time to time. When well skimmed add 2 or more carrots, an onion, and a bundle of sweet herbs, and salt to taste. Draw the pan to the side of the fire, and let the beef slowly boil till done. 2-2½ hours from the time of boiling for a piece of beef 10-12 lb. weight. Strain and preserve the liquor for stock.
Braised.—Put in a stewpan a layer of slices of onion, and over this a layer of slices of fat bacon ½ in. thick; on this place a piece of round of beef 8-10 lb. weight, neatly tied up with string; set the saucepan on the fire for 20 minutes, and turn the beef over once or twice during the process, then add a cupful of wine (red or white), 2 carrots, and an onion cut in slices, a bundle of sweet herbs, pepper and salt to taste, and a few cloves. Lastly, fill up the saucepan with just enough common stock to come up to the top of the piece of beef; cover the pan close, and braise it for 4-5 hours, keeping a few hot cinders on the lid. Serve with its own gravy, freed from fat, and strained.