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Deviled Beef
Melt two tablespoons butter, add two tablespoons green pepper, one tablespoon onion, one teaspoon each of salt and lemon juice, one tablespoon flour. Spread on rounds of cold roast beef and sauté in butter; or add one half cup tomato and reheat beef in sauce.
A leftovers dish written in the telegraphic style of its period: quantities but no method, and no yield. The whole thing rests on treating the butter-pepper-flour mixture as a spreadable paste rather than a sauce.
- Chop everything fineThe green pepper and onion are presumably measured after chopping, and they need to be minced small enough to spread — a coarse dice will fall off the meat in the pan. Two tablespoons of pepper is roughly an eighth of a medium bell pepper.
- Cook the paste before it goes on the beefSweat the pepper and onion in the melted butter for two or three minutes, then stir in the flour and let it cook a further minute. Raw flour spread on cold meat and flashed in a pan will taste of paste.
- Slice thin and cold"Rounds of cold roast beef" means slices cut from a chilled joint; thin slices work best here, though the recipe gives no thickness. Cold beef slices cleanly; warm beef shreds.
- The heat is the hingeThe beef is already cooked, so the sauté is only to brown the coating and warm the meat through — a minute or so a side over medium-high heat. Longer and the slices turn grey and dry.
- "Deviled" is understated hereMost deviled preparations of the era carried mustard, cayenne or Worcestershire. This one relies on green pepper and lemon alone; a teaspoon of dry mustard or a few dashes of hot sauce brings it in line with what the name promises.
- The tomato variantHalf a cup of tomato means fresh peeled and chopped, or the canned equivalent. Add it to the cooked paste, simmer until it thickens slightly, then slip the beef in off the boil and let it heat through for two or three minutes.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield. The quantity of seasoning mixture is small, enough to coat a few slices; a lunch dish for two or three rather than a substantial main course.
Deviling — coating something in mustard, pepper or another sharp seasoning and giving it fierce heat — is generally traced to English kitchens of the late eighteenth century, and by the Victorian era a devil was a common fate of cold joints, bones and poultry legs left from the previous day's roast. Lowney's Cook Book, published by the Massachusetts chocolate firm in the early 1900s, is best remembered for its confectionery, but it also gives space to the economical handling of leftovers, at a period when a Sunday roast was expected to feed a family through midweek. Where an English devil leaned on mustard and cayenne, this version takes its bite from fresh green pepper and lemon.