Stuffed Beef
The meat is cut one inch thick from the entire round, both upper and under cut. Lay this slice of meat on a baking board, sprinkle over it a cup of chopped suet, and add a layer of plain, dry stuffing made of grated or crumbed bread seasoned with butter, salt, pepper and a bit of chopped onion. Roll tightly and tie with wrapping twine. This part of the work may be done on the previous day, the meat being set in a cold place. When ready to cook, place a flat-bottomed iron kettle on the stove add one-half cup of suet, and when very hot flour the meat thickly and lay the roll in the kettle to brown. Turn from side to side until well browned, then add hot water nearly to cover, and stew slowly for three hours. This browning process crusts over the meat and keeps in the juices. Cover the kettle while the meat is cooking. When done, lift out the meat, thicken the juices in the bottom of the kettle, pour over the meat and serve. meat may be baked in the oven, browning in the baking-pan, then adding the water and baking. If a braising pan is at hand, use it, as the meat will then need but little attention. If such a pan is not used, baste often during the cooking. Make a gravy and pour over.
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A rolled, stuffed braise cut from the whole round — what a butcher today would call a beef roulade or, in larger form, a stuffed flank. The cut is the hard part; the cooking is straightforward.
- The cut"The entire round, both upper and under cut" means one broad slice across the whole leg, top round and bottom round together — a sheet of meat perhaps 12 by 14 inches. No supermarket sells this. Ask a butcher for a single 1-inch slice across the round, or use two large slabs of top round pounded thin and overlapped, or a butterflied flank steak.
- SuetA cup of chopped suet in the filling and a half cup in the pan. Raw beef suet is still sold by butchers and some online grocers; if you cannot find it, beef tallow or clarified butter browns just as well. The suet in the stuffing is there for richness, and can be halved without harm.
- "Plain, dry stuffing"Grated or crumbed stale bread, butter, salt, pepper, chopped onion — nothing more, and deliberately dry so it absorbs meat juices rather than turning to paste. Figure 2 to 3 cups of crumbs and 3 to 4 tablespoons of butter for a slice this size.
- Twine"Wrapping twine" here means plain parcel string. Use butcher's twine, tied at 1½-inch intervals, and tuck the ends of the roll in so the stuffing does not wash out into the braising liquid.
- Browning does not seal in juicesThe recipe's explanation is the old Liebig theory and is wrong — searing creates flavor through the Maillard reaction, it does not crust over the meat or hold moisture in. Brown it anyway, hard and on every side, because that browning is most of the finished gravy's flavor.
- The braiseAdd hot water nearly to cover, cover the pot, and hold it at a bare simmer for three hours — visible movement but not a rolling boil, which tightens the muscle fibers and shreds the roll. In the oven the equivalent is 325F, checked at two hours; round is lean and goes from tender to stringy quickly.
- Making it aheadAssembling and rolling the day before is sound practice, but "set in a cold place" meant a larder at cellar temperature. Refrigerate at 40F or below, wrapped, and no longer than 24 hours.
- The gravyThicken the braising liquid with a slurry of 2 tablespoons flour in cold water per cup of liquid, or reduce it and finish with butter. It will be fatty from the suet, so skim before thickening and taste before adding salt.
- Yield and servingA roll from a full round slice serves 8 to 10. Let it rest 15 minutes, snip the twine, and cut across the roll in ¾-inch rounds so each slice shows the spiral of stuffing.
The Butterick Cook Book (1911) came from the pattern and magazine publisher, and it was written for a cook working with economy cuts. The round is the leg — lean, sinewy, and cheap — and rolling it around a bread stuffing was one common way to stretch it and give it moisture: compare German Rindsrouladen, Italian involtini, and the American "beef birds" of the same period. The claim that searing "crusts over the meat and keeps in the juices" was widely repeated in English-language cookbooks from the mid-nineteenth century onward, and is usually traced to the German chemist Justus von Liebig; it long outlasted the experimental work that undermined it. The passing mention of a braising pan is a small period marker too: the recipe frames the pan as the difference between basting often and needing "but little attention."