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Cold Spiced Beef Rolls
Lay the solid lean pieces of the round of beef open in steaks, and on top of them lay thin sheets of fat salt pork. Roll up, tie, and keep in the spiced pickle two weeks.
When to be cooked open the rolls, wash in cold water, spread over with parsley leaves plentifully, roll up again and tie. Place them in a saucepan and half fill with good soup stock. Cover to keep the steam in either with buttered paper and the lid or with a lid of flour-and-water paste and keep the rolls stewing about 5 hours. Cool in the same liquor; press like corned beef; slice cold.
By way of excuse for frequent quotations from Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton's first novel, Pelham, we will laisser nos moutons long enough to remark that the Lord Guloseton of that novel is none other than Brillat-Savarin, author of Gastronomy and Gastronomers, and almost the only writer of note on the subject, as the young and enthusiastic author imagined him after reading his book in the French. In his last novel, the Parisians, Lord Lytton returned to his early impressions and introduced a character named Savarin. "And thou most beautiful of all, thou evening star of entremets-thou that delightest in truffles and gloriest in the dark cloud of sauces-exquisite foiegras!--Have I forgotten thee? What though the goose, of which thou art a part, has, indeed, been roasted by a slow fire, in order to increase thy divine proportions--yet has not our Almanach-the Almanach des Gourmands--truly declared that the goose rejoiced amid all her tortures-because of the glory that awaited her? O, exalted among birds-apotheosied goose, did not thy heart exult even when thy liver parched and swelled within thee, from that most agonizing death; and didst thou not, like the Indian at the stake, triumph in the very torments which alone could render thee illustrious?" --Pelham That settles it. We don't want any preternaturally enlarged fat livers of geese if they have to be obtained in that way.
In the countries where truffles grow and these abnormal fat livers are produced the pates or raised pies are made with about three livers partly split like pouches, and truffles cut in pieces stuffed into the cavities. The crust is of hot-water paste raised in a mould. The inside of the raised crust is first lined with a forcemeat made of chicken meat, bread crumbs, fat pork and herb seasonings, pounded and forced through a seive. The livers are laid in, truffles strewn in fragments over them, fat pork and forcemeat over that and a top crust over all. The pie is baked over two hours, enveloped in buttered paper. When nearly done it is withdrawn from the oven and some cognac brandy poured in. It is returned to the oven, and when done is filled up with aspic jelly mixed with madeira wine. The pie is elaborately ornamented with patterns in paste, and the dish with jelly.
Of the truffles used it is said: If a vendor with a basketful passes through the house in the morning, a stranger coming in in the afternoon, hours afterwards, is instantly made aware of it by the perfume left behind. "A huge Strasbourg pate de foie-gras in the shape of a bastion. * * A jar of truffled foiegras. * * Soon the interior of each carriage discloses its treasures of pies, its marvels of pate-de-foie-gras, its dainties of all possible kinds. * * * I have seen them display on the turf the turkey in clear jelly, the household pie, the salad all ready for mixing." --A Hunting Party.--Gastronomie. "I ask you to meet a saute de foie gras, and a haunch of venison." --Pelham. Fat Liver Cheese in Jelly. PAIN DE FOIES DE POULARDES. 1 1/2 pounds of chicken livers. 1 pound of calf's liver. The meat of one chicken, previously cooked. 1 1/2 pounds of dry fat salt pork. 4 ounces of bread steeped and squeezed dry. 1 corned tongue cooked. 8 ounces of the brisket fat of corned beef. 2 cans of truffles, or, 1 pound fresh mushrooms. 6 raw yolks of eggs. 1/2 pint of madeira or sherry. Spiced salt for seasoning.
Examine the livers for gall stains, which make them bitter. Steep them all night in cold water. Melt the fat pork in a large saucepan, add all the livers cut small and the chicken meat likewise. Cook a short time, only till the livers seem to be cooked through without letting them become hard. If you have no spiced salt add a bayleaf, pepper, thyme and a pinch of spices in the saucepan to cook with the livers. Pound to a paste. Mix the bread panada and raw yolks together and the wine with them, add this mixture to the liver paste and press it all through a sieve. Cut the brisket fat (already well cooked and cold) into dice shapes, also the red tongue and the truffles or mushrooms, and mix them in the paste.
Bake the mixture in a mould for about 2 hours, but before putting it in the mould cover the bottom with thin slices of fat pork and lay some more and one bayleaf over the top of the liver cake. Set the mould in a pan of water and bake it that way.
When done let it get quite cold in the mould. Dip in hot water to take it out. Remove all the fat, smooth it over with a hot knife. Cover with jelly or otherwise ornament as for galantines and pressed beef. In place of the brisket fat above specified French cooks use calf's udder salted and boiled.
Fresh gathered large mushrooms, chocolate brown on the under side, yield a rich gravy and a higher flavor than the button mushrooms, and make a much better substitute for truffles.