Beef
The influence of the ox on human society, and more especially on the temperament of Mr. John Bull, deserves a chapter to itself. There is room for but a word. No animal has been so often taken for a god as the bull, or for a goddess as the cow; and though we may not allow them so much honour, it cannot be denied that those races of men who own the best of them and partake the most of them have attained the highest civilization. From the age of myth to these ages of doubt, Europa in her most perfect form has been borne on the back of Jupiter Bos.
Roast Beef.--The French and the English kitchens have long been at variance as to the best mode of utilising beef. The French are loud in their praises of beef broth, and stick with wonderful devotion to boiled beef. In England the value of beef broth is fully admitted; but boiled beef is a byword; and "The Roast Beef of Old England" is known all over the world. It is served with the simplest of meat gravies, nothing like what the French call by that name, which is a thick cullis-a strong and extravagant decoction of beef, veal and ham, boiled down to a glaze. The only other sauce which is much used with it is horseradish sauce; but it is excellent also with a Béarnaise sauce, or with Robert. It is nearly always accompanied by Yorkshire pudding, and potatoes in some form or other; but it would be well to popularise also, as an attendant, the white haricot bean, either plain or worked up in the Breton way.
There is an odd disagreement about the fillet of beef. Many people seem to regard it as the best part of the sirloin. Perhaps they do so because of its tenderness; but its taste is such that when the French roast a whole fillet, as they often do by itself, they lard it with bacon, Beef they steep it for twenty-four hours in wine, oil, salt, pepper and onions, to give it a flavour; they anoint it with thick meat gravy, and they serve it with sharp sauce. This is not saying much for the fillet, which the French, however, delight to honour in the form of steaks.
Beefsteak is even more popular in England than roast beef, and there is a common saying that the dinner which the Englishman most enjoys is just such a dinner as the Beefsteak Club-composed of very choice feeders was started to ensure. There is more variety, too, in a beefsteak than many people imagine. The favourite in this country appears to be a rump-steak. What the French understand by a bifteck is cut from the sirloin. Besides which there is the rib-steak or entrecôte, cut from the ribs of beef; and also that which is perhaps most prized of all -certainly it commands the highest price-the fillet-steak. Needless to say that the steak which has attained preeminence in England is always grilled (see Grill), is served as hot as possible, with the taste of the fire on it, and is eaten for the most part plain, in the juice that oozes from it, or with a pat of fresh butter upon it.
Beefsteak with Oyster Sauce. When an Englishman takes a sauce with his steak, this is what he first thinks of. But there is a particular way of making the sauce for broiled meat, which is not the same as for fish. Beefsteak à la Maître d'Hôtel. This is the best known of the French steaks. It is cut usually from the sirloin, and is served with a piece of maître d'hôtel butter melting upon it in the dish.
Beefsteak with Anchovy Butter.-Served with a piece of anchovy butter melting upon it, as it is taken from the fire.
Beefsteak aux Fines Herbes. A steak with some ravigote butter melting upon it. Beef Beefsteak of Bordeaux (Entrecôte à la Bordelaise).-A rib-steak with a piece of maître d'hôtel butter, into which has been worked a chopped shalot. See Bordeaux.
Beefsteak à la Béarnaise. A fillet-steak with a Béarnaise sauce poured over it. Beefsteak à la Châteaubriand. - See Châteaubriand. It is twice the thickness of ordinary steaks.
For a garnish to any of these steaks potatoes hold the first place-cooked in various ways. Sometimes fried onions are in request, but in this case it would be much better to order potatoes done up with onions in the Lyonnese way. Grilled mushrooms or tomatos are among the best garnishes for beefsteak; after which may rank cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, haricot pods, and haricot beans.
Beefsteak Pie. Take two or three pounds of rumpsteak, clear it of fat, and cut it into collops two or three inches in diameter. Put them into a pie-dish, layer upon layer, dredged with a little flour, and duly seasoned with pepper, salt, and chopped onion or shalot, Pour over them some good gravy or broth-good enough when the pie is cold to turn to jelly. Most cooks are content with water, but as the pie is very often eaten cold, the result is an odious watery sauce. Cover the pie up in the usual way, and let it bake for an hour or so. The pie is mightily improved by the addition of a dozen oysters and their liquor for every pound of beef.
Beefsteak Pudding contains either the same ingredients as the foregoing, or the same as kidney pudding.
Beefsteak Tossed-in French, sauté. These are steaks either of the usual size, or cut up into thin collops about two or three inches in diameter. English cooks frequently do their steaks in the frying-pan when they have not got a fire good enough to broil them. In that case they should Beef do so frankly, and not make a pretence of broiling. Put the steak or the collops with a piece of butter into the pan, and fry them briskly on each side, but take care not to burn the butter. When the meat is done take it out.
Then dredge in a little flour into the pan, and add a ladleful of gravy or broth, which after being stirred on the fire for a minute or two may be strained into a saucepan; into which also put a quantity of olives, or of mushrooms, or of oysters, which have been previously prepared, and heat them up in the sauce. A glass of sherry or Marsala may go with them, or may take their place. This is not a very brilliant substitute for a good grilled steak; but the French take to it in the form of the Filet sauté aux olives, aux champignons, aux truffes, au vin de Madère.
Beefsteak Stewed. - Have a large and thick rump-steak, -even more than may be necessary, for this is a dish which, if the sauce be good and plentiful, seems to surpass itself when cold, and comes in graciously at breakfast and at supper. Put the steak with butter into an oblong pan that will hold it nicely laid out at length; brown it on both sides, dredging it lightly with flour; and when it has taken colour pour over it broth enough to cover it and more than cover it. Sometimes water is used; but this is a mistake, as it is important that the sauce when cold should be almost a jelly. Set the steak to boil, skim it, add to it a Mirepoix of red wine, and let it simmer gently for two or even three hours. A quarter of an hour before it ought to be ready, see how the sauce is in consistence and in taste. This is especially necessary for those cooks who moisten the steak with water or with broth which is too thin. The sauce should be a cullis, and if it is not so it may be well to stir into it a little corn-flour. As for taste it is perilous to attempt to improve upon a good Mirepoix ; but mushroom ketchup sometimes comes in well if used with discretion; pepper may be needed; and Beef all mention of salt has been hitherto omitted because of the bacon and the ham in the Mirepoix.
Beef à la mode. - Take some of the veiny piece, the thick flank or the rump, and let it be five inches thick. Cut some bacon fat for larding, and let the lardoons be of considerable size-say half an inch thick. Dip them first into vinegar, and then into a mixed powder made up of pepper, salt, thyme, bayleaf and parsley, very finely chopped. Lard the beef with them through and through. Melt some fat in a large brazier or stewpan; put the beef into it and fry it for a quarter of an hour. Next add to it two calf's feet, half a pint of white wine, half a pint of broth and half a pint of water, together with salt. Let it boil and skim it. Then add two or three carrots, two or three onions, two or three cloves, and a faggot of sweet herbs. Cover up the brazier or the stewpan tight, so that there may be no evaporation, and let it stew very gently for five or six hours. The beef is to be served with the calf's feet cut up and the carrots. The gravy is to be strained, freed from fat, reduced to half, and poured over the beef. In addition to the pieces of calf's feet and the carrots for a garnish, it is usual to provide a quantity of small onions browned and cooked apart.
Salted and Spiced Beef. -The salting and spicing may for the most part be left to the butcher who provides the meat-round, edgebone, silverside, brisket, or whatever it be. The following, however, are the usual quantities :- For salting-reduce to a fine powder one ounce of saltpetre with three of sugar, and rub this well into the meat. Then rub in three-quarters of a pound of salt, also powdered. Rubbing and turning every day, a piece of beefsay sixteen pounds should be ready in nine or ten days. Observe that there are sixteen ounces of pickle for sixteen pounds of meat.
For spicing-say a good-sized Round. Rub into the Beetroot beef half a pound of brown sugar, and leave it for two days.. Then make a powder consisting of one pound of salt, two ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of black pepper, two ounces of allspice, two ounces of juniper berries-well mixed together. Rub this into the beef and turn it daily; it will be ready in three weeks.
For cooking-the usual way is to wash off the salt and spice; to boil the ordinary salt beef in water, and to serve it with some of its liquor; also with a garnish of greens, carrots, and sometimes dumplings. But if people take for three weeks the trouble to get up a Round of beef-one of the boasts of English cookery-they may as well cook it in the best way, which is to place it, with a very little water-a cupful will do in a pot of its own size, metal or earthen, to surround it and cover it with beef-fat chopped, and to bake it in the oven for five or six hours. The difference is incredible between the tenderness and succulence of a Round boiled in water, at a temperature below 212°, and one baked in beef-fat at 300° or 400°. The Miniature round of beef that is, ribs of beef, boned and rolled-may be done in the same way with admirable effect, though of course the measurements must vary. The larger round of beef may be reckoned at twenty-five pounds. What is called Pressed Beef is nothing but the brisket, pickled as above with salt, sugar, saltpetre and mixed spices-left in this pickle for a week, boiled till tender, and pressed under a heavy weight until cold.