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Pepper and Salt (Two whole Eggs)
Two whole Eggs.
Cut the beef and bacon very small, put it into a basin with the breadcrumbs and seasoning.
One pound of Beef. Half a pound of Bacon. One gill of Stock. Six ounces of Breadcrumbs. Beat the eggs and stock together, and pour them to the other ingredients, and mix well. Form into a short roll with the hands, tie in a pudding cloth, boil for two hours and a half, press between two dishes until cold, and then glaze it on the top.
This page has been separated from its ingredient list — the heading "Two whole Eggs" is the tail of a column of quantities that belongs above it, and the beef, bacon, breadcrumbs, stock and seasoning are all unquantified. The method is sound and complete; the proportions have to be supplied by the cook.
- Missing quantitiesA workable ratio for a Victorian boiled meat roll is roughly 1 lb finely chopped beef to 4 oz bacon, 4 oz fresh breadcrumbs, 2 eggs and about 4 tablespoons stock. The mixture should just hold its shape when squeezed, not slump.
- "Cut very small" is not mincedThe period instruction means chopped by hand to a fine dice, which gives a firmer, more sliceable roll than a mincer or food processor. If you use a machine, pulse rather than run it, or the roll turns pasty.
- SeasoningThe only seasoning named in the surviving fragment is pepper and salt; whether that line was a heading or simply part of this recipe's stranded ingredient column cannot be told from the page. Season with a firm hand, because the roll is served cold, when salt reads weaker. Around a teaspoon of salt per pound of meat is the usual mark.
- The pudding clothA scalded, floured cotton cloth tied at both ends is the original wrapping. A double layer of cling film wrapped tightly and then a layer of foil, or muslin tied with string, does the same job; the point is a tight sausage that holds its shape in the water.
- Boil means simmerA hard boil will burst the roll and squeeze out the fat. Keep the water at a bare tremble for the two and a half hours, and top it up hot so the roll stays covered. A 1½ lb roll will be well past 160F at the centre by then.
- Pressing between two dishesThis is not optional decoration — it compacts the roll as the gelatine from the stock and bacon sets, which is what makes it carve into clean cold slices. Weight the top dish with a couple of tins and refrigerate overnight.
- GlazingThe "glaze" of the period is meat glaze or aspic: strong stock reduced until it sets firm, brushed on cold in thin coats. Powdered gelatine bloomed in well-flavoured stock, cooled to the point of thickening, gives the same lacquered top.
- YieldA roll made to the proportions above serves six to eight as a cold cut, with mustard, pickles or salad. It keeps three or four days covered in the refrigerator.
Cold pressed meat rolls of this kind were a fixture of the late-Victorian and Edwardian larder, the sort of thing a household cook made to carry the cold table through the week or fill a picnic hamper. The technique follows that of the boiled pudding: forcemeat tied in a floured cloth and simmered in water, a method that predates reliable domestic ovens. Beef stretched with bacon and breadcrumbs and bound with egg is thrift with a professional finish, and the final coat of meat glaze — reduced stock set to a shine — points to a more elaborate style than the plainest family manuals, though a fragment this short will not place the book with any confidence. Some books of this period printed quantities in a narrow left-hand column beside the method, which would explain why a page like this survives with a stray ingredient as its title.