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Beef and Tomato Loaf
Soften one tablespoonful of granulated gelatin in a half cup of cold water. Heat three quarters of a cup of canned tomatoes, seasoned, dissolve the gelatin in this, add two cups of cooked chopped beef, flavored with a tablespoonful of lemon juice and a cucumber pickle chopped fine. Mix well and put into a glass or china mold. Chill. Serve with endive salad.
A jellied loaf of leftover roast beef, built on the standard gelatin-to-liquid ratio of its day. The one thing to get right is the setting balance: about 1 1/4 cups of liquid to a tablespoon of gelatin is firm enough to slice, but only if the meat is well drained.
- Gelatin measureOne tablespoon of granulated gelatin is one standard 1/4-oz envelope. Sprinkle it over the cold water and leave it five minutes until it swells and looks pebbled before it goes into the hot tomato.
- Never boil the tomatoThe tomato needs to be hot enough to dissolve the bloomed gelatin completely — around 150-160F, steaming but not bubbling. Boiling will not ruin gelatin outright, but a hard boil weakens the set, and undissolved granules leave gritty streaks in the sliced loaf.
- Canned tomatoesCanned tomatoes of the period were typically whole tomatoes packed in their own juice. Use diced or crushed tomatoes with their liquid; "seasoned" here presumably means salt, pepper and perhaps a pinch of sugar, added to taste before the gelatin goes in.
- Cooked chopped beefThis is a leftovers dish — cold roast beef, pot roast or boiled beef, hand-chopped to a coarse mince rather than ground to paste. Blot it dry, since meat juices thin the aspic and can slacken the set.
- Cucumber pickleOne whole pickle, minced fine. A modern sweet gherkin will push the loaf noticeably sweeter against the lemon juice; a sour or dill pickle keeps it sharper, though the original does not specify which was meant.
- The moldGlass or china is specified, plausibly because tomato acid can take on a metallic taste from metal molds. A 3-cup loaf pan, small bowl or ring mold all work. Rinse it with cold water first and the loaf releases more willingly.
- Chilling time"Chill" means at least four hours, and overnight is better for clean slices. To unmold, dip the outside in warm water for a few seconds and invert onto a plate.
- Yield and servingMakes about 3 cups — four modest lunch servings. The endive of the original is most likely curly endive or escarole, dressed simply with oil and vinegar to cut the gelatin's richness.
Molded meat in aspic belongs to the long stretch between the arrival of cheap granulated gelatin in the 1890s and the mechanical refrigerator's spread through American kitchens in the 1920s and 30s, which together turned a laborious professional technique into more accessible home cooking. The logic of the dish is thoroughly domestic: a loaf like this exists to use up Sunday's roast in a form that could be made in the morning, left in the icebox, and sliced cold for supper. The lemon juice and chopped pickle do the work that a warm gravy would do at a hot meal, supplying the acid and sharpness that cold beef otherwise lacks.