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To Collar A Flank of Beef
Procure a well corned flank of beef. After washing it, remove the inner and outer skin with the gristle. Make a seasoning of parsley, thyme, pepper and cloves. Place the meat upon a board, and after rubbing with a little pepper, spread the mixture over the inside. Roll the beef very tight, fasten it with small skewers, place a bandage around the beef and tie with a strong tape; place in a pot, and cover with water to the depth of an inch; boil slowly six hours. When done remove without undoing it; lay a board on top of the beef, place a very heavy weight on top of the board, and let it remain twenty-four hours. Remove bandage, garnish with curled parsley, and serve with tomato sauce,
A cold-table centrepiece of the English kind: brined beef rolled, boiled long and slow, then pressed until it slices clean. Almost everything that can go wrong here happens after the pot comes off the heat.
- Press it cold, not on the counterThe instruction to weight the roll for twenty-four hours assumes a cold larder. Do the pressing in the refrigerator; twenty-four hours at room temperature on cooked meat is the one part of this method that does not transfer.
- "Well corned" means already brinedThe recipe does not cure anything — it starts with beef that has sat in salt brine, what a butcher today sells as corned beef. Buy a flat, uncooked corned beef flank or brisket, roughly 4 to 5 lb. If it is heavily salted, soak it in cold water for an hour or two and change the water once.
- Skin and gristleFlank of this period came with membrane on both faces, as the recipe's "inner and outer skin" implies. Modern cuts are trimmed, but pull off any remaining silverskin — it will not soften in six hours and it stops the roll slicing evenly.
- Bandage and tapeSubstitute a double layer of cheesecloth and butcher's twine tied at inch intervals. Skewers are optional if you tie tightly.
- Water to the depth of an inchThis most likely means an inch of water above the meat rather than an inch in the pot; the recipe does say "cover with water". Top up with boiling water as it reduces so the roll stays submerged throughout.
- Six hours is longKeep the pot at a bare simmer, never a rolling boil, or the outer layers shred while the centre is still tight. A trimmed modern flank or brisket is usually fully tender at 3 to 4 hours; test with a skewer and stop when it slides in with no resistance.
- The weightTwo or three heavy tins, a foil-wrapped brick, or a full stockpot on the board will do. The pressing is what gives collared beef its dense, sliceable texture; skip it and you have pot-boiled brisket.
- ServingThis is served cold, cut in thin rounds across the roll, so the spiral of green seasoning shows. Tomato sauce here is most likely a plain cooked tomato sauce rather than a bottled ketchup. A 4 to 5 lb flank serves 10 to 12 as a cold cut.
To "collar" meat is an old English kitchen verb meaning to season the inner face of a flat piece of meat, roll it into a cylinder and bind it — the same treatment given to brawn, breast of veal, pig's head and, most famously, eels, which were sold as collared eel in London into the nineteenth century. The method solved two problems at once for a household without refrigeration: the salt cure and the long boil kept the meat sound for days, and the pressing turned an awkward, sinewy cut into something that could be sliced thin and laid out cold for supper, breakfast or a sideboard buffet. Flank was a cheap cut, and collaring is essentially a way of making it behave like a more expensive one.