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The Back of the Rump
A roast from the back of the rump, if cooked without removing the bone, should be placed on the platter with the backbone on the farther side. Cut first underneath to loosen the meat from the bone. Then, if the family be large and all the meat is to be used, the slices may be cut lengthwise; but should only a small quantity be needed, cut crosswise and only from the small end. It is then in better shape for the second day.
It is more economical to serve the poorer parts the first day, as they are never better than when hot and freshly cooked. Reserve the more tender meat to be served cold.
Three short paragraphs about a bone-in beef roast, and two of them are about tomorrow’s meal rather than today’s. The reasoning is as interesting as the technique.
- The cut has to be orderedA bone-in roast from the rump is not something a counter keeps ready. Rump is sold as steak and as boneless joints, so this means talking to a butcher and giving notice, and the bone is the reason the first instruction exists at all.
- Free the meat from the bone firstBackbone on the far side, then cut underneath to loosen the meat before any slice is taken. Do that and every later slice comes away clean. It is the transferable technique on this page and it applies to any bone-in roast.
- Lengthwise or crosswise is a decision about the second daySlice it lengthwise if the whole joint is going to be eaten, and crosswise from the small end if only a little is needed, because the joint then keeps a shape worth serving again. The direction of the knife is being chosen for how the meat will look tomorrow.
- The grain is not mentionedA modern cook has been taught to find the grain before cutting, and this page says nothing about it. Rump is more than one muscle and they do not all run the same way, so the lengthwise cut the page recommends will be with the grain in places and across it in others.
- Serve the poorer parts hotThe stated economy, and it is the opposite of what most people do: the less good meat is never better than when hot and freshly cooked, so it goes out first, and the tender part is kept back to be eaten cold. The best of the joint was deliberately saved for the cold meal.
- Cold beef was a planned mealEverything here assumes a second appearance on a plate rather than reheated in a pan, which is why the shape of the remaining joint matters so much. If you never serve cold roast beef, two of these three paragraphs have nothing to say to you.
In the space of a paragraph this page shows a household doing arithmetic at the table. The carver looks at the joint, counts the people, decides whether all the meat will be wanted, and chooses the direction of the knife accordingly, knowing that what is left will be eaten cold the next day and must still look like a joint when it is. If the family be large, slice lengthwise; if not, take only what is needed from the small end. That calculation was made in public, in front of whoever was sitting there, by the person who was also responsible for the household budget, which is why a manual about knives spends so much of its space on economy. A roast bought big enough to need this reasoning, and a second day planned for before the first slice is cut, describe a way of eating in which nothing was bought for a single meal.