Beef Birds
Cut slices half an inch thick from the rump or round of beef; divide them into pieces about four inches square; spread with sausage meat or forcemeat; roll up tightly and fasten with cord or wooden tooth-picks. Brown in butter; cover with broth; stew until tender and nearly dry; thicken the gravy with flour; add a quarter of a cup of tomato or mushroom catsup; bring to a boil and serve.
A straightforward braise of stuffed beef rolls, written for cooks who already knew how long a tough cut takes. The two things the original leaves out are the pounding and the time.
- Pound the slicesHalf-inch slices from the round will not roll tightly or eat tenderly as cut. Flatten each four-inch square to about a quarter inch between sheets of plastic before spreading the filling; this is the step that decides whether the finished rolls are tender or springy.
- The cut"Rump or round" points to the lean, sinewy hindquarter; rump and round are adjacent cuts rather than the same one. Modern top round or bottom round steak works; sliced chuck is an easier substitute if you accept a looser roll.
- ForcemeatPeriod forcemeat is ground pork or veal bound with breadcrumbs, egg and herbs. Bulk breakfast sausage is the honest modern stand-in, but drain nothing and keep the layer thin, a tablespoon or so per roll, or it will force the seam open.
- FasteningCotton kitchen twine is far more reliable than toothpicks, which char and drop out during browning. Tie each roll twice across and once lengthwise, and remove the twine before serving.
- Broth and time"Cover with broth" works out to roughly 2 cups for eight rolls in a snug pan. Figure 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a bare simmer, lid on, turning once; the recipe stews on the stove, though a low oven will hold the same gentle heat. "Nearly dry" is the target: reduce uncovered at the end if there is too much liquid to thicken.
- ThickeningRather than sprinkling flour into the pot, work 2 tablespoons flour into 2 tablespoons softened butter and whisk that into the simmering liquid in pieces. Ten minutes of cooking after it goes in removes the raw-flour taste.
- The catsupMushroom catsup of this period was a thin, dark, salty-vinegary sauce, closer to Worcestershire than to modern tomato ketchup. If you use bottled ketchup, start with 2 tablespoons and taste; a quarter cup will make the gravy sweet.
- YieldTwo pounds of beef gives about eight rolls, serving four. Potatoes, mashed or boiled, suit the dish, which is built around its gravy.
Beef birds go by many names in nineteenth-century English and American books, and the "bird" is often said to describe the shape: a small stuffed roll about the size of a plump songbird, cooked the way larks and other little birds once were. The same idea appears as beef olives in older English cookery, paupiettes in French, and involtini or braciole in Italian, and it exists everywhere for the same practical reason, which is that a thin slice of cheap, lean, hard-working muscle becomes something worth serving when it is wrapped around a fatty forcemeat and stewed long and slow.