In the 180 volumes on Cookery, we patiently pioneered through, before we encountered the tremendous labour and expense of proving the receipts of our predecessors, and set about recording these results of our own experiments, we could not find one receipt that approximated to any thing like an accurate description of the way in which this excellent dish is actually dressed in the best alamode beef shops; from whence, of course, it was impossible to obtain any information: however, after all, the whole of the secret seems to be the thickening of the gravy of beef that has been very slowly[313-*] stewed, and flavouring it with bay-leaves and allspice.
Take about eleven pounds of the mouse buttock, or clod of beef, or a blade-bone, or the sticking-piece, or the like weight of the breast of veal; cut it into pieces of three or four ounces each; put three or four ounces of beef drippings, and mince a couple of large onions, and put them into a large deep stew-pan; as soon as it is quite hot, flour the meat, put it into the stew-pan, keep stirring it with a wooden spoon; when it has been on about ten minutes, dredge it with flour, and keep doing so till you have stirred in as much as you think will thicken it; then cover it with boiling water (it will take about a gallon), adding it by degrees, and stirring it together; skim it when it boils, and then put in one drachm of ground black pepper, two of allspice, and two bay-leaves; set the pan by the side of the fire, or at a distance over it, and let it stew very slowly for about three hours; when you find the meat sufficiently tender, put it into a tureen, and it is ready for table.
It is customary to send up with it a nice salad; see [No. 372].
*** To the above many cooks add champignons; but as these are almost always decayed, and often of deleterious quality, they are better left out, and indeed the bay-leaves deserve the same prohibition.
Obs. Here is a savoury and substantial meal, almost as cheap as the egg-broth of the miser, who fed his valet with the water in which his egg was boiled, or as the “Potage à la Pierre, à la Soldat,”[313-†] mentioned by Giles Rose, in the 4th page of his dedication of the “perfect school of instruction for the officers of the mouth,” 18mo. London, 1682. “Two soldiers were minded to have a soup; the first of them coming into a house, and asking for all things necessary for the making of one, was as soon told that he could have none of those things there, whereupon he went away; the other, coming in with a stone in his knapsack, asked only for a pot to boil his stone in, that he might make a dish of broth of it for his supper, which was quickly granted him; when the stone had boiled a little while, he asked for a small piece of meat or bacon, and a few herbs and roots, &c. just merely to give it a bit of a flavour; till, by little and little, he got all things requisite, and so made an excellent pottage of his stone.” See [Obs.] to [No. 493].
| s. | d. | |
| Onions, pepper, allspice, and bay-leaves | 0 | 3 |
| 11 pounds of beef | 3 | 8 |
| Made eight quarts | 3 | 11 |
i. e. sixpence per quart.
To pot Beef, Veal, Game, or Poultry, &c.—(No. 503.)
Take three pounds of lean gravy beef, rub it well with an ounce of saltpetre, and then a handful of common salt; let it lie in salt for a couple of days, rubbing it well each day; then put it into an earthen pan or stone jar that will just hold it; cover it with the skin and fat that you cut off, and pour in half a pint of water; cover it close with paste, and set it in a very slow oven for about four hours; or prepare it as directed in [No. 496].
When it comes from the oven, drain the gravy from it into a basin; pick out the gristles and the skins; mince it fine; moisten it with a little of the gravy you poured from the meat, which is a very strong consommé (but rather salt), and it will make excellent pease soup, or browning (see [No. 322]); pound the meat patiently and thoroughly in a mortar with some fresh butter,[314-*] till it is a fine paste (to make potted meat smooth there is nothing equal to plenty of elbow-grease); seasoning it (by degrees, as you are beating it,) with a little black pepper and allspice, or cloves pounded, or mace, or grated nutmeg.