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Beef and Veal

In selecting beef, see that the flesh is firm and of a clear red, and the fat of a yellowish white. In buying a quarter of beef, it is better to have it cut up by the butcher, if you are living in town. The hind quarter is considered better, and sells higher than the fore quarter. If a roasting piece is desired, the sirloin from the hind quarter is usually preferred. It is not generally known, however, that the second cut of the rib-roast from the fore quarter is the finest roast from the beef.

When the bone has been removed, and the meat skewered in the shape of a round, by the butcher, it is well to roast it on a spit before an open fire. If the latter cannot be obtained, however, plunge the beef for a moment in boiling water, then rub well with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and place on a little grate or trivet which will readily go in a baking-pan. In this pour about a pint of the water in which the beef was scalded. Place it in a very hot oven, with an inverted tin plate on top of the roast. Remove this plate often to baste the meat. When nearly done, which will be in about two hours for a roast of six pounds, baste several times and bake a nice brown. Season the gravy with minced onion, parsley and thyme, add a little salt and pepper and a tablespoonful of the meat flavoring of which a receipt was given in the general directions about meat. Serve the gravy in a sauce-tureen, so that each person may choose whether to eat the beef with gravy or with the juice that escapes from the meat while it is being carved. The latter mixed with grated horseradish is preferred to gravy by some persons.

Every portion of the beef, from head to feet is useful and delicious when properly prepared.

The rounds and rump pieces are generally used for beef a lamode. Fresh beef from the ribs, boiled with turnips, is considered a nice dish by some persons. For steak, nothing is so nice as tenderloin or porter-house steak. I take this occasion to protest against the unwholesome custom of frying steak in lard. When inconvenient to broil, it may be deliciously cooked by being first beaten till tender, then laid in a hot frying-pan, closely covered, and cooked without lard or butter, in its own juices. When scorched brown on both sides, but not hard, remove the pan from the fire, pepper and salt the steak, and put a large tablespoonful of fresh butter on it. Press this in with a knife and fork, turning the steak, so that each side may absorb the butter. Serve on a hot dish. The whole process will not consume five minutes. Some persons think it best to add the salt after the steak is done, though many good housekeepers salt and pepper the steak before before broiling it. Beefsteak should be cooked rare; it is a great mistake to cook it till hard and indigestible. The parts most suitable for soup are the head, neck, shank, and all the unsightly parts. After the bones are broken and the meat boiled from them, the liquor is used for soup, while the meat, picked or cut to pieces, will make an excellent stew seasoned with potatoes, turnips, sweet herbs, one tablespoonful of butter and the same of meat flavoring.

It is well always to keep brine on hand for corning beef. All the parts not desirable for roast or steak had better be corned.

The beef, after being dressed, should be hung up by the hind legs, with a smooth, round piece of timber sufficiently strong to hold the weight, passed through the legs at the hock, or run between the tendon and bone, with short pegs to keep the legs stretched apart. Then with a sharp axe, standing behind the suspended beef, split it down the backbone, severing it in half. Then pass a knife through the ribs, leaving two or three short ribs on the hind-quarter. Sever the backbone with an axe. Then cut with a sharp knife straight across the parallel line with the spinal bone, which piece must be divided into two pieces, the sirloin and steak. Then take off two rounds, or three, according to the size of the animal, cutting with a sharp knife, and cutting the bone with a meat saw or axe, as near the joints as possible, which leaves the shin-bone.

The fore quarter then is divided into four pieces, after taking off the shoulder, which may be divided into three or more pieces. The loin of veal is the nicest part, and is always roasted. The fillets and knuckles may be stewed and roasted.

The latter is nicest for soup.

The breast may be stewed or roasted.

The cutlets are nicest from the legs or fillet.

The head is a dish for soup, stew or pie.

Sweetbreads from the throat make a delicious dish, much prized by epicureans. The feet, boiled till the bones drop out, make a delightful dish, fried in batter, while the water in which they are boiled makes excellent jelly. Veal, to be eaten in its perfection, should be killed when from four to six weeks old.