Roast Beef-Middle Short Loin—English Style

Cut along the vertebra and toward the top of the back a piece containing the greater part of the tenderloin, from the end rib to the hip; this part called the middle short loin, and is the choice piece for roasting; it is used in the best houses in England and France. The meat must be selected from a young and tender beef of deep crimson color and veined with slices of fat. Cut from the center a piece weighing, ten, twenty, or thirty pounds, more or less, according to the number of guests to be supplied, cut away the fat, and a piece of the flank seasoning with salt and pepper, and fold the flank over; the meat should be the same thickness throughout. Tie it well, making a knot at each turn of the string. It can be wrapped up in several sheets of buttered paper. A piece of beef roasted on the spit is far preferable to one cooked in the oven. It suffices to place it in the middle of an English cradle spit (Fig. 116), but sometimes it is impossible to cook it in this way. Therefore the most practical manner is to cook it as follows: Set it in a deep pan with raised edges, and furnished with a grate slightly raised on four feet an inch and a half high (Fig. 306). Pour into the pan a few spoonfuls of fat, put the meat on the grate, and roast it in a moderate oven allowing for a short loin weighing fifteen pounds one and a half hours, one of twenty, two hours, and one of thirty, two and a half hours, forty pounds, three and a half hours, the time always to be calculated according to the regularity of the fire and the thickness of the meat; roast the meat, basting and turning it over frequently, and a little water in case the grease threatens to burn. When nearly done salt. When the short loin is nearly cooked untie, and keep in a hot closet from fifteen to forty minutes according to the size, then serve it in a large dish; it must be cut in slices lengthwise of the meat, beginning at the sirloin and then the tenderloin. Serve on very hot plates with a sauce-boat of clear gravy (No. 404) passed around at the same time.