Raw meat

“ PEPTONIZED BEEF.
To a quarter-pound of finely minced, raw lean beef add a half-pint of cold water; cook over a slow fire to boiling and boil for a few minutes, stirring constantly from the beginning. Pour off the liquor and set it aside; rub the meat to a paste and put it into a clean glass jar or bottle with the liquor and a half-pint of cold water; add
Shake all well together and stand in a warm place, about 110° to 115° F., for three hours, stirring or shaking occasionally, then boil quickly, strain, or clarify with white of egg in the usual manner ”

“ Three and one-half pounds raw beef, or a mixture of beef and veal may be used, run through a food chopper. A cheap cut of meat may be used if, before chopping, all pieces of gristle are trimmed off. Place the chopped meat in a bowl, add 8 tablespoonfuls of fine, dried bread crumbs, 1 tablespoonful of pepper, 11⁄2 tablespoonfuls of salt. Taste the meat before adding all the seasoning specified, as tastes differ. ”

“ The meat is scarcely ever roasted, because there is no coal, and firewood is expensive. The meat is therefore baked; and the consequence of this baking is, that no meat is eatable or eaten, with its own gravy, but is always accompanied by some sauce more or less piquant. The Germans generally believe that in England we eat our beef and mutton almost raw; they shudder at our gravy, as if it were so much blood.
STEWED BEEF or RUMP STEAK (an Entree) .
666. INGREDIENTS.—About 2 lbs. of beef or rump steak, 3 onions, 2 turnips, 3 carrots, 2 or 3 oz. ”

“ The lean of good fresh beef is of a bright red color, a fine close grain, and feels tender to the touch on pinching it between your thumb and finger. The fat is firm and very nearly white. The suet about the kidney, firm and quite white. If, on the contrary, the lean is coarse, tough, and of a dull color, and the fat scanty, yellow, and moist, do not buy that meat for any purpose. The same rules will apply to mutton. If the weather is so cold that the meat is frozen, thaw it by lying it all night or early in the morning in a tub of cold water. ”

“ Any kind of meat can be used to make a meat-and-potato hash; but, of course, nothing is so good as corned beef. Cold roast, boiled, or broiled beef, mutton, lamb, veal, or tongue can be freed from skin, fat, and bones, seasoned highly with salt and pepper, and cooked like corned beef hash. Even two or three kinds of meat can be used. If it happens that you have a bit of steak, a part of a chop, and perhaps a slice of tongue, use them all. ”

“ In poor beef, the watery part seems to separate from the rest, which lies in a pool of serous bloody fluid. The gravy from such beef is pale and poor in flavor; while the fat, which in healthy beef is firm and of a delicate yellow, in the inferior quality is dark yellow and of rank smell and taste. Beef is firmer in texture and more satisfying to the stomach than any other form of meat, and is usually considered more strengthening. ”

“ When your meat, of whatever kind, has been down some time, but before it begins to look brown, cover it with paper and baste on it; when it is nearly done, take off the peper, dredge it with flour, turn the spit for some minutes very quick, and baste all the time to raise a froth—after which, serve it up. When mutton is roasted, after you take off the paper, loosen the skin and peel it off carefully, then dredge and froth it up. Beef and mutton must not be roasted as much as veal, lamb, or pork ”

“ You can remove the bone or not, it improves the flavor if left. Put the joint into a saucepan and over it pour some boiling water. Boil about fifteen or sixteen minutes, and then remove it to one side of the fire. This process secures all the juices in the meat. Now put the bacon, onion, carrots (cut in lengths) , turnips (sliced) , spice, cloves, pepper corns, celery, parsley and salt into a braizing pan. Put in the meat and pour the stock over it, and, if you have it, add some sherry or wine. ”

“ Pork, veal, and lamb, should always be well roasted; but many eaters prefer mutton and beef rather underdressed, though some persons have a strong objection to the sight even of any meat that is not thoroughly cooked.
Joints which are thin in proportion to their weight, require less of the fire than thick and solid ones. Ribs of beef, for example, will be sooner ready to serve than an equal weight of the rump, round, or sirloin ”

“ If the corned beef is very salty change the water several times. While the meat is hot, separate gristle and excess fat from the lean. Line a bread pan with tough paper or a strip of cheesecloth, lay the pieces of lean meat in the pan so that the fibers of the meat run lengthwise, and add about 1⁄2 cup of the meat broth. Cover the meat with paper or cheesecloth, and press it down with a heavily weighted pan or board. Chill overnight. Turn the pressed meat out of the pan, slice very thin across the grain, and serve with horseradish sauce or a spicy relish. ”

“ Spread the bottom of the pot with butter, or marrow. Pack in pieces of meat, bone, gristle, the carcases of birds, two or three vegetables cut up in small pieces, two cloves, and a bouquet of herbs.
Cover the meat, etc., with cold water. Put on the lid. Heat slowly, and when it boils set back to simmer for four or five hours.
In preparing meat for this stock, look it over carefully; reject any piece which is not perfectly good, also all stuffing, skin, smoked or burnt pieces. A little beef fat can always be retained, but mutton fat should not be used as it is rank in flavour. ”

“ Coarse-grained meat, and meat streaked with connective tissue or gristle, is sure to be tough. (2) Freshness. Fresh beef is a good red colour, modified, when it is very cold, to a purplish shade. If black or greenish in tint the meat is stale, and its odour will be bad. Meat is flabby after it is killed, but soon grows firm. It is in suitable condition for cooking before this change takes place, or some days after it. ”

“ A sufficient quantity of mutton or [100] beef suet, butter, lard, or oil, being melted in a pan, and made boiling-hot, the meat is laid in it. It is not necessary that the meat be wholly immersed in the boiling fat; if it be immersed in part, it will be quite sufficient. When flesh is the substance to be fried, the pieces, previously to their being put into the pan, are sometimes brushed over with eggs and crumbs of stale bread, flour, or any other farinaceous substance. ”

“ When beef is good, it will have a fine smooth open grain, and it will feel tender when squeezed or pinched in your fingers. The lean should be of a bright carnation red, and the fat white rather than yellow—the suet should be perfectly white. If the lean looks dark or purplish, and the fat very yellow, do not buy the meat. ”

“ A ROUND OF BEEF STEWED BROWN.—Take a round of fresh beef; the larger it is the more tender it will be: a small round is always, comparatively, hard and tough. Remove the fat; with a sharp knife make [70] deep cuts or incisions all over the meat, and stuff into them a seasoning of finely minced onions, mixed with powdered mace, nutmeg, and a little pepper and salt. Then go all over the meat with the drippings or cold gravy of roast beef, and dredge it slightly with flour. Have ready an iron dutch-oven and its lid, well heated by standing up both lid and oven before the fire. ”

“ BEEF RAGOUT. Take a small well cut piece of lean beef, lard it with the fat of smoked beef, and stew it with good gravy, highly seasoned with allspice, cloves, pepper and salt; when the meat is well done remove it from the gravy, which skim carefully and free from every particle of fat, and add to it a glass of port wine, the juice of a lemon, half a tea-spoonful of cayenne pepper, and a little mushroom ketchup; the beef should be glazed when required to have an elegant appearance. ”

“ Beef à la Mode 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. ”

“ To the gravy that is now running from the meat add nothing but a tea-cup of boiling water. Skim it, and send it to table in a boat. Serve up with the beef in a small deep plate, scraped horseradish moistened with vinegar.
Fat meat requires more roasting than lean, and meat that has been frozen will take nearly double the usual time.
Basting the meat continually with flour and water is a bad [71] practice, as it gives it a coddled par-boiled appearance, and diminishes the flavour. ”

“ In choice and well-fed beef, the lean will be found intergrained with fat: very lean meat is generally of an inferior quality.
The ribs, the sirloin, and the rump, are the proper joints for roasting. The round, or buttock, the edgebone, the second round, or mouse-buttock, the shin, the brisket, the shoulder or leg of mutton piece, and the clod, may be boiled or stewed. The neck is generally used for soup or gravy; and the thin flank for collaring. The best steaks are cut from the middle of the rump ”

“ The result of this process is, that size and weight are attained by a deposit of fat, rather than by the construction of muscular fiber, which alone is true meat; while, as a necessary consequence, the characteristic flavor and other qualities of fully developed beef and mutton are greatly wanting in modern meat.
Much more unsatisfactory is the supply of vegetable and dairy produce to our great city, particularly of the former. ”

“ The lean of fat beef cooked in steaks, with very little salt, is the best, and it should be rather underdone than otherwise. Mutton being reckoned easy of digestion, may be occasionally given, to vary the diet and gratify the taste. The legs of fowl are highly esteemed. It is preferable to have the meat broiled, as much of its nutritive quality is lost by roasting or boiling. Biscuit and stale bread are the only preparations of vegetable matter which are permitted to be given; and every thing inducing flatulency must be carefully avoided. ”

“ Broth for Potages.—Take three pounds of good, lean, fresh beef, from any part except the shin. There must not be more than two ounces of bone to a pound of meat, and the less bone the better. Place the meat in a soup-kettle or iron saucepan lined with tin, with three quarts of cold water and salt, and set it on a good fire. After about thirty minutes, the scum or albumen of the meat will gather on the surface, and the water will commence boiling. Now place the kettle on a more moderate fire, add one gill of cold water, and begin to skim off the scum, which will take only a few minutes. ”

“ When the meat is about done, pour these drippings into a skillet, and let it boil. If it is not thick enough, shake in a little flour; but be sure to let it boil, and be well stirred, after the flour is in. If you fear it will be too greasy, take off a cupful of the fat before you boil. The fat of beef, pork, turkeys and geese is as good for shortening as lard. Salt gravy to your taste. If you are very particular about dark gravies, keep your dredging-box full of scorched flour for that purpose. ”

“ If instead of broth you use good beef gravy, it will be delicious.
When we Think we Fail, we are Often Near Success.
1159. Beef à la Mode and Veal Ditto.
Take about eleven pounds of the mouse buttock,—or clod of beef,—or 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 in three or four ounces of beef dripping, and mince a couple of large onions, and lay them into a large deep stewpan. As soon as it is quite hot, flour the meat, put it into the stewpan, continue stirring with a wooden spoon ”

“ The white meats, such as Chicken and Veal, are best for invalids, because less stimulating than dark meats.
Liver contains so much oil that it is not good for invalids or dyspeptics.
The digestibility and healthfulness of meat depends very much upon the mode of cooking. Boiled meats are most easily digested, when properly boiled. Roasting, broiling, and baking, are healthful modes of cooking, but frying is a very pernicious mode of preparing meats, the reason of which will be explained hereafter. ”

“ Yolk 1 egg slightly beaten Season beef with salt, pepper, onion juice, and Worcestershire Sauce; add remaining ingredients, shape after the form of small croquettes, pointed at ends. Roll in flour, egg, and crumbs, fry in deep fat, drain, and serve with Tomato Sauce.
Corned Beef Hash Remove skin and gristle from cooked corned beef, then chop the meat. When meat is very fat, discard most of the fat. ”

“ This exception should be duly noted, inasmuch as it is the one redeeming feature of such proceeding that renders it fairly well adapted for the cookery of such [125] meat as cow-heels, sheeps’-trotters, calves’-heads, shins of beef, knuckles of veal, and other viands which consist mainly of membranous, tendinous, or integumentary matter composed of gelatin. To treat the prime parts of good beef or mutton in this manner is to perpetrate a domestic atrocity. ”

“ All lean trim can be ground as ground beef. Palatable ground beef should have from 15 to 30 percent fat. Most retail ground beef ranges from 20 to 25 percent fat.
MEAT COOKERY
Tender cuts of meat are best cooked with dry heat, as by broiling, roasting, or pan broiling. Less tender cuts of meat are tenderized by cooking with moist heat. Connective tissue is softened and tenderized by cooking slowly in moisture.
Temperature control is very important in meat cookery. Meat loses moisture, fat, and other substances during cooking. ”