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Beef, Salt, Fried
Season some thin slices, about one pound, of underdone beef, with pepper and salt; put them into a clean frying-pan with a little butter, and fry until they become a light brown colour; mash some potatoes, serve them very hot with the slices of beef laid on them, and garnish with slices of cucumber or pickled gherkins. Time, about five minutes for meat. Probable cost, 6d., exclusive of the cold meat. Sufficient for two persons.
A leftovers dish: cold boiled salt beef, sliced thin and warmed through in butter. The whole point is speed, and the one instruction worth obeying is the five minutes.
- What "salt beef" means hereNot raw beef that you salt in the pan, but meat already brined and boiled — what a modern shop sells as corned beef or salt brisket. The recipe assumes yesterday's joint is sitting in the larder.
- "Underdone"The slices come from a joint boiled to the pink side of done, so a brief turn in the pan finishes rather than overcooks them. If your cold beef is already well cooked, cut the pan time to a minute or two, just enough to heat through and colour the edges.
- Go easy on the saltThe recipe says to season with pepper and salt, but brined brisket carries plenty of its own. Taste a slice before you season; pepper alone may be enough.
- Slice thin and coldCold meat cuts far more cleanly than warm. The recipe asks only for "thin slices"; keep them thin, as thicker pieces need longer in the pan and toughen while the outside browns.
- The panButter over a good medium-high heat, and do not crowd the pan or the slices will steam and go grey. Work in two batches for a pound of meat if your pan is small.
- Cost and yield"6d." is sixpence in pre-decimal money, the cost of the butter, potatoes and garnish only. A pound of sliced beef with mash serves two generously.
- The garnish is not decorationCucumber or pickled gherkins cut the salt and the butter. Skipping them leaves the plate heavy.
Victorian cookery books are full of instructions for the second appearance of a joint, and boiled salt beef — brisket or silverside cured in brine — was one such dish, curing being a common way of keeping meat before reliable refrigeration. Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, compiled in the 1870s, gives a "probable cost" for its recipes, a habit suited to households working to a fixed budget; here the sum excludes the beef itself because the beef is assumed to be already paid for. The pairing of salt meat with mashed potato and a sharp pickle is a familiar British one, the pickle doing the work that a sauce would do elsewhere.