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BEEF OMELET
Three pounds beef chopped fine, three eggs beaten together, six crackers rolled fine, one table-spoon salt, one tea-spoon pepper, one table-spoon melted butter, sage to taste. Mix well and make like a loaf of bread; put a little water and bits of butter into the pan, invert a pan over it, baste occasionally, bake an hour and a quarter, and when cold slice very thin.
This is a meatloaf in all but name, built to be baked, cooled, and sliced thin for sandwiches and cold suppers. The original gives no oven temperature, so the numbers below matter more than usual.
- OvenThe original gives no oven temperature. An hour and a quarter for a three-pound loaf is consistent with a moderate oven, and around 350F works. Bake until the centre reaches 160F on an instant-read thermometer, which for a loaf of this size usually falls close to the stated time.
- "Chopped fine"In 1877 this meant beef put through a hand grinder or worked over with a chopping knife in a wooden bowl. Ordinary ground beef is the equivalent; choose 80/20 rather than lean, since there is no other fat in the mixture beyond one spoon of butter.
- CrackersSix crackers means plain soda or water crackers, not the small modern saltine. Figure roughly a cup of fine crumbs; unsalted cracker crumbs or dry breadcrumbs work identically as binder.
- SaltA tablespoon of table salt in three pounds of beef is roughly 1.3 percent by weight, which is well seasoned but not excessive. If your crackers are salted, cut it to two teaspoons.
- The inverted panSetting a second pan upside down over the loaf traps steam, which keeps a lean mixture from drying before the centre cooks. A sheet of foil tented over the loaf does the same thing; remove it for the last fifteen minutes if you want colour.
- Water and butter in the panThis is a basting liquid, not a braise. The recipe calls only for "a little water" with bits of butter; a shallow film is enough, spooned over the loaf a few times during baking.
- SageThe book says only "sage to taste." Dried rubbed sage, about a teaspoon for three pounds, is a reasonable starting point; if using fresh, about a tablespoon chopped.
- Cooling and slicingThe instruction to slice when cold is the point of the dish. Chill it fully, ideally overnight under light weight, or the slices will crumble.
- YieldThree pounds of beef plus binder gives a loaf serving eight to ten hot, or a good quantity of cold sliced meat for sandwiches.
"Beef omelet" is one of several nineteenth-century American names for a baked, egg-bound meat loaf; the use of "omelet" for such a mixture rather than a pan-cooked egg dish appears to be a looser period usage, though the reason for the name is not documented. It appears in Buckeye Cookery (Ohio, 1877), and a loaf like this stretched cheaper cuts with crackers and eggs into a cold meat that could be sliced thin for days. Cold sliced loaf was common tea-table and lunch-pail fare in the period.