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Beef, Spanish, Frico
Cut up two pounds of the fillet, rump, or round of beef into pieces weighing about an ounce each, and add cayenne pepper and salt to taste. Boil two pounds of potatoes and cut them into good thick slices; place them with the meat and a small cup of gravy in a close-fitting stewpan in alternate layers. Add a quarter of a pound of butter and as much Spanish onion, previously boiled and sliced, as may be liked. Stew gently for an hour, and when nearly done throw a glass of Madeira or claret over all. Probable cost, 3s.3d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A layered beef-and-potato stew that depends almost entirely on trapped steam rather than added liquid. A few of the quantities and vessel assumptions need translating.
- The close-fitting lid is the whole methodWith only a small cup of gravy for 4 lb of meat and potatoes, the dish cooks largely in its own steam. Use a heavy pan with a tight lid, or seal the rim with foil under the lid; a loose lid risks scorching the bottom layer.
- Heat level"Stew gently" means the barest tremble, on the lowest burner with a heat diffuser if you have one. A very low oven can be used instead, though the recipe assumes a stewpan on the stove.
- A small cup of gravyRead this as roughly 1/2 cup of well-flavoured brown stock or leftover roast gravy. A Victorian wineglassful is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz (1/4 cup), though "a glass" here is imprecise.
- A quarter pound of butterThat is 4 oz (115 g) for four or five people, generous even by period standards. Half that amount still gives the potatoes the richness the dish is built on.
- Spanish onionThe large mild onion of that name, imported from Spain in this period and now sold simply as a large mild yellow onion. One big one, boiled until just tender and sliced thickly, suits the recipe's "as much ... as may be liked"; boiling first keeps it from staying crunchy in the short cooking time.
- The potatoes are already cookedBoil them just short of done and cut slices no thinner than 1/2 inch, or they will disintegrate into the gravy during the hour. Waxy varieties hold their shape best.
- Cut of beefFillet, rump and round behave quite differently. Rump in one-ounce pieces should be tender after an hour of gentle stewing; round is leaner and may still be firm. Fillet will be overcooked and dry, so if you use it, add it to the pan for the last twenty minutes.
- Cost and yield3s. 3d. is Victorian retail pricing and of no use now. It serves four to five as written.
Cassell's arranges its dictionary alphabetically, which is why an obscure dish like this sits under "Beef" beside a hundred other beef entries, with no note of where it came from. The construction itself — cooked potatoes and meat layered with butter in a sealed pot, moistened with a little gravy and finished with a glass of wine — is a variation on the hotpot principle found across British household cookery of the period.