Roast beef

“ That there is no diet quite so good as rare roast beef.
And even when the body's in the very prime of health,
[204] When sweet contentment spreads upon the cheeks her rosy wealth,
And when a man devours three meals per day and pines for more,
And growls because instead of three square meals there are not four,—
Well, even then, though cake and pie do service on the side,
And coffee is a luxury that may not be denied,
Still of the many viands there is one that's hailed as chief,
And that, as you are well aware, is rare roast beef. ”

“ Roast Beef, Medium, is not only a food. It is a philosophy. ”

“ The dripping of roast beef, after all the fat has been removed, and the basting of the meat is over, should be strained into a pan, and kept in a cold place, with a cover; and next day, when it is congealed into a cake, scrape off whatever impurities may still adhere to the bottom, transfer it to a covered jar, and set it in the refrigerator, or where it will be cold. The dripping of roast beef is excellent for frying, for plain pie-crust, or for many other purposes. The dripping of mutton (being tallow) [142] is only fit for soap-fat, and will spoil any dish whatever. ”

“ Baste every five minutes with one-fourth cup butter melted in one cup boiling water. Serve with Brown Mushroom Sauce I.
Roast Beef The best cuts of beef for roasting are: tip or middle of sirloin, back of rump, or first three ribs. Tip of sirloin roast is desirable for a small family. Back of rump makes a superior roast for a large family, and is more economical than sirloin. It is especially desirable where a large quantity of dish gravy is liked, for in carving the meat juices follow the knife. Rib roasts contain more fat than either of the others, and are somewhat cheaper. ”

“ Roast Beef.—The problem of roasting beef is to have it sufficiently cooked in the center without hardening and over-cooking the outside. Burned edges and a raw center testify to a lack of intelligence. ”

“ Except these teeth wherewith to deal with rare roast beef.
Most every kind and rôle of modern victuals have I tried,
[206] Including roasted, fricasseed, broiled, toasted, stewed, and fried,
Your canvasbacks and papa-bottes and muttonchops subese,
Your patties à la Turkey and your doughnuts à la grease;
I've whirled away dyspeptic hours with crabs in marble halls,
And in the lowly cottage I've experienced codfish balls;
But I've never found a viand that could so allay all grief
And soothe the cockles of the heart as rare roast beef. ”

“ If there is danger of flour burning in pan, add a small quantity of water; this, however, is not desirable, and seldom need be done if size of pan is adapted to size of roast. Beef to be well roasted should be started in hot oven and heat decreased, so that when carved the slices will be red throughout, with a crisp layer of golden brown fat on the top. Beef roasted when temperature is so high that surface is hardened before heat can penetrate to the centre is most unsatisfactory. ”

“ Cold roast beef makes a very good pie, but it is not necessary that roast beef be used, as left-over steak or even a combination of left-over meats, will do very well.
Cut into 1-inch cubes whatever kinds of left-over meats are on hand. Cover with hot water, add a sliced onion, and cook slowly for 1 hour. Thicken the liquid with flour and season well with salt and pepper. Add two or three potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices, and let them boil for several minutes. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish and cover it with a baking-powder biscuit mixture. ”

“ Take some slices of cold roast beef that has been under-done. Put them into a stew-pan with a little gravy or broth, or if you have neither, some warm water. Add a piece of butter rolled in flour, some capers, or some pickled cucumbers chopped small, a little lemon-juice or vinegar, and some salt and pepper. Let the beef simmer slowly, but do not allow it to boil. Have ready some slices of bread (of the same size as the slices of beef) and [33] fry them in butter. Put some tomata sauce in the bottom of a dish. Lay on it in a pile a few slices of beef and slices of fried bread alternately. ”

“ The old fashion of Yorkshire pudding with roast beef is too good a one to be abandoned, though its substitute of potatoe pudding is not to be rejected. Garnish with finely scraped horseradish.—Where cold roast beef is not liked, or if too underdone to eat cold, slices may be gently simmered over the fire in gravy or broth, or a very little water, and a little pepper and salt, eschalot vinegar, or some sort of catsup. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For this purpose, spread some hare stuffing over the beef, roll that up tightly with tape, and tie it on the spit. Send this to table with the sauces for roast hare. When the whole joint is roasted, the inside {70}will be sufficiently underdone to make hashes. If only a part of the sirloin be cooked, the inside is best eaten hot, as it is not so good cold as the upper side.—Roast beef bones should be taken care of, for soup and gravy, and used before they become musty.
Rump of Beef.
Roast in the same manner. Half of this joint makes a nice family dish. ”

“ Roast beef is not the same price in all eating-places. What makes the difference? What does a diner at the Ritz get in his "roast prime ribs of beef au jus" that makes it distinctive from the "Special to-day—roast beef and mashed potatoes" of the Bowery restaurant? ”

“ RIB ROAST WITH YORKSHIRE PUDDING
Sift together one cup and a half of flour, and one-third a teaspoonful of salt; gradually add one cup and one-half of milk, so as to form a smooth batter; then add three eggs, which have been beaten until thick and light; turn into a small, hot dripping pan, the inside of which has been brushed over with roast beef drippings; when well risen in the pan, baste with the hot roast beef drippings. Bake about twenty minutes. Cut into squares and serve around the roast.
Apple Mint Jelly for Roast Lamb
Cut the apples in quarters, removing imperfections. ”

“ Also, some persons like their meat very much done; others prefer it rare, as it is called. In summer, meat will roast in a shorter time than in winter.
When the beef is nearly done, and the steam draws towards the fire, remove the paper that has covered the fat part, sprinkle on a little salt, and having basted the meat well with the dripping, pour off nicely (through the spout of the roaster) all the liquid fat from the top of the gravy.
Lastly, dredge the meat very lightly with a little flour, and baste it with fresh butter. ”

“ This thin part of the beef can be either roasted with the rest or cut off and used as a stew. It is not very available at the table. It almost always is tough, and there is a great deal of fat proportionately. The lean that is there is very apt to dry and harden in the baking. So that the best way to use the part is to cut it off and cook it separately. Have the beef cut large enough to give a roast from the thickest part. The white line of cartilage will be sure to bother in carving, and the best way is to cut it out before you cook the meat. ”

“ Well, that applies right through life. It's all very well to trifle with the little side-dishes at first, but there comes a time when you've got to quit fooling with the minced chicken, and the imitation lamb chops of this world, and settle down to plain, everyday, roast beef, medium. That other stuff may tickle your palate for a while, but sooner or later it will turn on you, and ruin your moral digestion. You stick to roast beef, medium. It may sound prosaic, and unimaginative and dry, but you'll find that it wears in the long run. You can take me over to the hotel now. ”

“ Cut thin slices of cold boiled (not salted) , or roast beef, or tongue. Put 6 onions chopped into a saucepan with 1⁄4 lb. of butter, turn it round frequently, and in a few minutes add a little flour mixed in a tea-cup of broth, and a wine-glass of white wine; let it be on the fire until the onions are cooked; then put in the meat with salt, pepper, and a spoonful of vinegar. After one boil, stir in a spoonful of made mustard, and serve it; the edge of each slice lying a little over the other round the dish.
Bubble and Squeak.
Cold boiled beef is best, but roast meat is very good. ”

“ In roasting or boiling, use but little salt at first, as it hardens meat to do otherwise. In roasting, baste frequently, to prevent the meat from hardening on the outside, and try to preserve the juices. If possible, roast the meat on a spit before a large, open fire, after using salt, pepper, butter or lard, and dredging with flour. Where an open fire-place cannot be obtained, however, the meat may be well roasted in a stove or range. Mutton, pork, shote and veal should be well done, but beef should be cooked rare. ”

“ All in all, it was what I should call a representative roast beef dinner. And I got more than ten cents' worth of calories, I know.
But so far I had kept below the Fourteenth Street belt in my investigations. Roast beef is a cosmopolitan habit, and knows no arbitrary boundaries; so I went uptown. Into one of the larger of our largest hotels, one which is not so near the Grand Central Station as to be in the train-shed, and yet not so far removed from it as to be represented by a different Assemblyman. Here, I felt, would be the test. Could roast beef come back? ”

“ After 1⁄2 hour's roasting add 2 to 3 tablespoonfuls of butter and let it roast for another hour, basting frequently. In 11⁄2 hours the roastbeef is rare inside and in 2 hours it is well done.
If the roast is small, it will require 15 minutes less per pound, and if larger 15 minutes longer for roasting. When the roast is done, put it on a platter and make the gravy.
Take 3⁄4 tablespoonful of flour, put it into the pan, stir it well and let it boil 3 minutes, then pour in the 1 cup of water, boil a few minutes, strain and serve. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I should like to know what well-constituted mind, merely because it is transitory, dislikes roast beef? ”

“ Even a tough, undesirable piece of "chuck" or "pot roast" may be made more tender and palatable by long-continued simmering than it would be if put in rapidly boiling water and kept boiling at that rate. Meat may be made more tender also by being marinated; that is, allowing the meat to stand for some time in a mixture of olive oil and vinegar before cooking it. In stewing most meats a good plan is to put a large tablespoonful of finely-minced beef suet in the stew-pan ”

“ To carve a roast of any kind, run the fork into the meat deeply enough to hold it firmly and then cut the meat into thin slices across the grain. In the case of a roast leg that contains the bone, begin to carve the meat from the large end, cutting each slice down to the bone and then off so that the bone is left clean. Place round of beef and rolled roasts on the platter so that the tissue side, and not the skin side, is up, and then cut the slices off in a horizontal direction. To carve a rib roast properly, cut it parallel with the ribs and separate the pieces from the backbone. ”

“ Have the butcher bone and roll the meat, dredge it well with salt, pepper, and flour, and brown it on all sides in a frying-pan with a little of the fat from the meat, or one or two tablespoons of beef drippings or pork fat. Put all the ingredients together in a small cooker-pail, let it simmer thirty minutes, set it into a larger pail of boiling water and put into a cooker for nine hours or more. Reheat it to boiling point; strain and thicken the liquor for gravy. Round [95] of beef may be used for pot roast, but it is drier than the rump, which has some fat on it. ”

“ Wipe the beef with a wet cloth, cut off any tough ends and bone if it will not mar the appearance of the meat, as these parts will not become palatable in the length of time required for the remainder of the roast. They will be found useful for soups, stews, cannelon of beef, Hamburg steak, and such dishes. Roast the meat in a hot oven for half an hour, transfer it quickly to a cooker utensil, add enough boiling water to nearly cover it, let the whole become very hot in the oven, and place it quickly in the cooker. ”

“ Chops should be bought according to the number of persons that are to be served, usually a chop to a person being quite sufficient. Rib roasts should be bought by designating the number of ribs. Thus, the housewife may ask for a rib roast containing two, three, four, or more ribs, depending on the size desired. Roasts from other parts of beef, such as chuck or rump roasts, may be cut into chunks of almost any desirable size without working a disadvantage to either the butcher or the customer, and may therefore be bought by the pound. ”