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Rolled Beef (Take nearly two pounds)
376. Take nearly two pounds of the inside of a sirloin or other tender beef, with three quarters of a pound of bacon; chop them finely, and mix well together, with nearly a spoonful of black pepper, and a little cayenne, salt, mace, and the grated rind of a lemon. Roll it up together, in a paper well buttered, and cover the whole with a thin paste of flour and water. Bake it two hours, and, after removing the coverings, serve it in a rich brown gravy. Véal may be substituted for the beef, in which case mushrooms or curry powder would be an improvement.
A baked forcemeat roll — chopped beef and bacon seasoned with spice and lemon, insulated in buttered paper and a flour-and-water crust that is thrown away before serving. The crust is the whole point of the technique and should not be skipped.
- The paste is packaging, not pastryFlour and water mixed to a stiff, rollable dough — what period cookery elsewhere calls a "huff paste" — seals in juices and shields the outside from direct heat, then gets discarded. The recipe specifies a thin paste, so roll it thin. Wrap the meat in buttered paper or parchment first, as directed, then case it in the paste, pinching all seams closed.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no oven heat, only a two-hour bake. A moderate oven, around 350F, is a reasonable modern reading for a roll of this size inside a crust, since the paste slows heat transfer considerably.
- Cook it throughThis is finely chopped meat, so treat it as you would a meat loaf rather than a joint of beef: bring the centre to 160F. Check with a probe through a slit in the crust at about 100 minutes.
- The pepper quantity"Nearly a spoonful" of black pepper is ambiguous and, if read as a tablespoon, ferocious. A rounded teaspoon suits modern palates and still leaves the roll assertively spiced alongside the mace and cayenne.
- BaconThree quarters of a pound to two pounds of beef is there for fat and salt. Use unsmoked streaky or a fatty pancetta; heavily smoked supermarket bacon will dominate the lemon and mace. Salt lightly given how much the bacon brings.
- ChoppingHand-chopping gives a coarser, better texture than a food processor, which turns lean sirloin to paste in seconds. If you use a machine, pulse it and stop while the meat still shows definition.
- MaceGround mace is the dried outer covering (aril) of the nutmeg seed, with a related but lighter flavour. Nutmeg can stand in, used sparingly.
- Gravy and yieldNo stock is made in the process, so the "rich brown gravy" must come from elsewhere: a reduced beef stock thickened with a brown roux, or pan juices from another roast. The roll serves six to eight, sliced thickly, hot or cold.