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Beef, Stewed Rump of
INGREDIENTS for a large dish. rump of beef, sufficient stock to cover it, 4 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, 2 tablespoonfuls of ketchup, 1 bunch of savoury herbs, 2 onions, 12 cloves, pepper and salt to taste, thickening of Jutter and flour, 1 glass of port wine.
AVERAGE COST, 10d. per lb.
Cut out the bone, sprinkle the meat with a little cayenne (this must be sparingly used), and bind and tie it firmly up with tape; put it into a stewpan with sufficient stock to cover it, add vinegar, ketchup, herbs, onions, cloves, and seasonings in the above proportions, and simmer very gently for 4 or 5 hours, or until the meat is perfectly tender, which may be ascertained by piercing it with a thin skewer. When done, remove the tape, lay it in a deep dish, which keep hot; strain and skim the gravy, thicken it with butter and flour, add a glass of port wine and any flavouring to make the gravy rich and palatable; let it boil up, pour over the meat, and serve. This dish may be very much enriched by garnishing with forcemeat balls, or filling up the space whence the bone is taken with a good forcemeat; sliced carrots, turnips, and onions boiled with the meat are also a great improvement, and, where expense is not objected to, it may be glazed. This, however, is not necessary where a good gravy is poured round and over the meat.
TIME.- rump stewed gently from 4 to 5 hours.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Note. A stock or gravy in which to boil the meat may be made of the bone and trimmings, by boiling them with water, and adding carrots, onions, turnips, and a bunch of sweet herbs. To BEEF-TEA. make this dish ricner and more savoury, halfroast the rump, and afterwards stew it in strong stock and a little Madeira. This is an expensive method, and is not, after all, much better than a plainer-dressed joint.
Beef, Stewed Shin of. INGREDIENTS. A shin of beef, 1 head of celery, 1 onion, a faggot of savoury herbs, 1/2 teaspoonful of allspice, 1/2 teaspoonful of whole black pepper, 4 carrots, 12 button onions, 2 turnips, thickening of butter and flour, 3 tablespoonfuls of mushroom ketchup, 2 tablespoonfuls of port wine; pepper and salt to taste. AVERAGE COST, 5d. per lb.
Have the bone sawn into 4 or 5 pieces, cover with hot water, bring it to a boil, and remove any scum that may rise to the surface. Put in the celery, onion, herbs, spice, and seasoning, and simmer very gently until the meat is tender. Peel the vegetables, cut them into any shape fancy may dictate, and boil them with the onions until tender; lift out the beef, put it on a dish, which keep hot, and thicken with butter and flour as much of the liquor as will be wanted for gravy; keep stirring till it boils, then strain and skim. Put the gravy back in the stewpan, add the seasoning, port wine, and ketchup, give one boil, and pour it over the beef; garnish with the boiled carrots, turnips and onions.
TIME. The meat to be stewed about 4 hours.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Beef-Tea. INGREDIENTS for 1 pint. -1 lb. of lean gravy-beef, 1½ pint of water, 1 saltspoonful of salt. AVERAGE COST, 8d.
Have the meat cut without fat and bone, and choose a nice fleshy piece. Cut it into small pieces about the size of dice, and put it into a clean saucepan. Add the water cold to it; put it on the fire, and bring it to the boiling-point; then skim well. Put in the salt when the water boils, and simmer the beef-tea gently from to hour, removing any more scum should it appear on the surface. Strain the tea through a hair sieve, and set it by in a cool place.
When wanted for use, remove every particle of fat from the top; warm up as much as may be required, adding, if necessary, a little more salt. This preparation is simple beef-tea, and is to be administered to those invalids to whom flavourings and seasonings are not allowed.
When the patient is very weak, use double the quantity of meat to the same proportion of water. Should the invalid be able to take the tea prepared in a more palatable manner, it is easy to make it so by BEEF-TEA, BAKED. following the directions in Soyer's recipe, which is an admirable one for making savoury beef-tea. Beef-tea is always better when made the day before it is wanted, and then warmed up. It is a good plan to put ne tea into a small cup or basin, and to place this basin in a saucepan of boiling water. When the tea is hot, it is ready to serve.
TIME. to hour.
A boned rump joint braised whole in stock, then served with a thickened, port-enriched gravy. The method is sound; the vocabulary and a few of the proportions need translating.
- The cut and the quantityNo weight is given for the rump. A boned, rolled rump or top rump of 4-5 lb serves eight to ten and fits a large casserole; anything much bigger will need a preserving pan.
- Tape means stringThe recipe calls for tape, a flat cotton binding; butcher's twine at 1-inch intervals does the same job. Tie firmly: the boned joint will slump and cook unevenly otherwise.
- Ketchup is mushroom ketchupNot tomato. It is a thin, dark, salty mushroom-and-spice liquor, still sold in Britain; Worcestershire sauce or a spoonful of soy plus a little anchovy stands in reasonably well. Tomato ketchup makes the gravy sweet and cloudy.
- Simmer, do not boilThis is the hinge. Four to five hours at a bare shiver keeps the meat sliceable; a rolling boil in the same time shreds it and clouds the gravy you are about to strain. An oven at 300F with the lid on holds the temperature more reliably than a burner.
- Cayenne "sparingly"Beeton's warning is worth keeping. A quarter-teaspoon over a 5 lb joint is plenty; it is there as background heat, not as a flavour you should be able to name.
- Thickening of butter and flourEqual weights kneaded cold into a paste - beurre manie - whisked into the boiling strained gravy a little at a time. Roughly 1 oz of each per pint of liquid gives a coating gravy. Let it boil a couple of minutes to lose the raw flour taste.
- Forcemeat and the bone cavityThe stuffing suggestion needs the joint tied tightly enough to hold it, and adds cooking time. A sausagemeat-and-herb forcemeat packed into the cavity must reach 165F at the centre, so check with a thermometer rather than the skewer test used for the beef alone.
- Stock from the boneThe note at the end is the practical part of the recipe: ask for the bone and trimmings, simmer them with carrot, onion, turnip and herbs while you prepare the joint, and you have the several pints of cover-liquid the dish requires without buying stock.
Rump cost 10d. per pound in Beeton's costings - the shin recipe on the same page cost half as much. The long gentle stew in home-made bone stock, finished with mushroom ketchup, vinegar and a glass of port, is the standard British braise of the period: sharpness and a fortified wine doing the work that stock reductions do now. Glazing, mentioned as optional "where expense is not objected to", meant brushing the joint with a heavily reduced, near-solid meat glaze for a lacquered surface, something Beeton is characteristically quick to say the household cook can do without.