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Chopped Beef En Casserole
2 pounds clod of beef 2/3 cup tomato catchup 1/3 teaspoon tabasco sauce Boiled beets Salt Mix chopped beef with tomato catchup. Add tabasco sauce, using more if desired. Season well with salt. Place in casserole and bake (350 degrees F.) slowly two to two and one-half hours, basting frequently with water and tabasco or Worcestershire sauce. A few strips of bacon across the top will add to the richness, and improve the flavor. Garnish with quartered beets.
A ground-beef loaf seasoned almost entirely with ketchup and hot sauce, baked long and basted like a roast. The basting is the point: without it the meat dries into a brick.
- Clod of beefClod is the shoulder cut just above the brisket, sold today as chuck or arm roast. Ask for coarse-ground chuck at about 20 percent fat; lean ground round will not survive two hours of baking.
- "Chopped" means groundIn this period chopped beef is minced beef, either put through a grinder or hand-chopped. The recipe says only to place the mixture in the casserole; it is not formed into patties.
- CasseroleHere the casserole is simply a baking dish; the recipe does not specify a cover, and the frequent basting implies it is open at least part of the time. A 9x5 loaf pan or a shallow 2-quart baking dish both work; the shallower the dish, the more surface the basting reaches.
- Temperature and time350F is given, though the text calls it slow. Two to two and a half hours at that heat is far longer than a modern meatloaf needs. If you want the original texture, bake covered at 300-325F and check that the centre has reached 160F; at 350F expect a very firm, deeply browned loaf.
- BastingBaste every 20 to 25 minutes with water plus a shake of tabasco or Worcestershire. This is what keeps a two-hour bake from turning to sawdust, and it builds the crust that gives the dish its character.
- Catchup and tabascoTwo thirds cup ketchup to two pounds of beef is a lot of sugar and vinegar, and period catchups were often thinner and sharper than modern brands. The 1/3 teaspoon of tabasco is an unusual fraction, and the recipe explicitly invites more.
- BaconThree or four strips laid across the top act as a self-baster and are worth adding, particularly if your beef is on the lean side.
- Beets and yieldThe boiled beets are cooked separately and used only as a garnish, quartered around the meat. The recipe gives no yield; two pounds of beef would serve roughly five or six.