Roast Beef
Take six or eight pounds of sirloin ; wipe, trim, and skewer into shape. If there be much flank, cut it off and use it for soups or stew. Lay the meat on a rack in the pan, and dredge all over with salt, pepper and flour; put it in a very hot oven with two or three tablespoonfuls of dripping or pieces of the beef fat placed in the pan. Place a rack under the pan or turn the heat off from the bottom of the oven. Put the skin side down first, that the heat may harden the juices in the lean part. When the flour is brown, baste the meat and reduce the heat. Baste often and dredge twice with salt and flour. When seared all over, turn the skin side up for the final basting and browning. Bake fifty minutes, if liked very rare; an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, if liked well done. Serve with Yorkshire pudding.