To serve tenderloin as directed below, the whole piece must be extracted before the hind-quarter of the animal is cut out. This must be particularly noted, because not commonly practiced, the tenderloin being usually left attached to the roasting pieces, in order to furnish a tidbit for a few. To dress it whole, proceed as follows: Washing the piece well, put it in an oven; add about a pint of water, and chop up a good handful of each of the following vegetables as an ingredient of the dish, viz., Irish potatoes, carrots, turnips and a large bunch of celery. They must be washed, peeled and chopped up raw, then added to the meat; blended with the juice, they form and flavor the gravy. Let the whole slowly simmer, and when nearly done, add a teaspoonful of pounded allspice. To give a richness to the gravy, put in a tablespoonful of butter. If the gravy should look too greasy, skim off some of the melted suet. Boil also a lean piece of beef, which, when perfectly done, chop fine, flavoring with a very small quantity of onion, besides pepper and salt to the taste. Make into small balls, wet them on the outside with eggs, roll in grated cracker or fine bread crumbs. Fry these force meat balls a light brown. When serving the dish, put these around the tenderloin, and pour over the whole the rich gravy. This dish is a very handsome one, and, altogether, fit for an epicurean palate. A sumptuous dish.
Cut it in rather thin slices, say a quarter of an inch thick; pour over it boiling water, which closes the pores of the meat, makes it impervious to the fat, and at the same time seals up the rich juice of the meat. It may be rolled in flour or bread crumbs, seasoned with salt and pepper, dipped in egg and fried in hot fat mixed with one-third butter.
Take a large slice of ham (cold boiled ham is best) and two pounds of the lean of fresh beef; cut all the meat into small pieces. Add a quarter of a pound of butter slightly melted; twelve large tomatas pared and cut small; five dozen ochras cut into slices not thicker than a cent; and salt and cayenne pepper to your taste. Put all these ingredients into a pot; cover them with boiling water, and let them stew slowly for an hour. Then add three quarts of hot water, and increase the heat so as to make the soup boil. Skim it well, and stir it frequently with a wooden or silver spoon. Boil it till the tomatas are all to pieces, and the ochras entirely dissolved. Strain it, and then serve it up with toasted bread cut into dice, put in after it comes out of the pot. This soup will be improved by a pint of shelled Lima beans, boiled by themselves, and put into the tureen just before you send it to table.
Deep coloured pumpkins are generally the best. In a dry warm place they can be kept perfectly good all winter. When you prepare to stew a pumpkin, cut it in half and take out all the seeds. Then cut it in thick slices, and pare them. Put it into a pot with a very little water, and stew it gently for an hour, or till soft enough to mash. Then take it out, drain, and squeeze it till it is as dry as you can get it. Afterwards mash it, adding a little pepper and salt, and a very little butter. Pumpkin is frequently stewed with fresh beef or fresh pork. The water in which pumpkin has been boiled, is said to be very good to mix bread with, it having a tendency to improve it in sweetness and to keep it moist.
Grate the crumb of a twelve cent loaf of bread, and boil a quart of rich milk with a small bunch of peach leaves in it, then strain it and set it out to cool. Pick, wash and dry a pound of currants, and stone and cut in half a pound of raisins; strew over them three large table-spoonfuls of flour. Roll fine a pound of brown sugar, and mince as fine as possible three quarters of a pound of beef suet. Prepare two beaten nutmegs, and a large table-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon; also the grated peel and the juice of two large lemons or oranges. Beat ten eggs very light, and (when it is cold) stir them gradually into the milk, alternately with the suet and grated bread. Add, by degrees, the sugar, fruit, and spice, with a large glass of brandy, and one of white wine. Mix the whole very well, and stir it hard. Then put it into a thick cloth that has been scalded and floured; leave room for it to swell, and tie it very firmly, pasting the tying-place with a small lump of moistened flour. Put the pudding into a large pot of boiling water, and boil it steadily five hours, replenishing the pot occasionally from a boiling kettle. Turn the pudding frequently in the pot. Prepare half a pound of citron cut in slips, and half a pound of almonds blanched and split in half lengthways. Stick the almonds and the citron all over the outside of the pudding as soon as you take it out of the cloth. Send it to table hot, and eat it with wine sauce, or with cold wine and sugar. If there is enough of the pudding left, it may be cut in slices, and fried in butter next day. All the ingredients of this plum pudding (except the eggs) should be prepared the day before, otherwise it cannot be made in time to allow of its being sufficiently boiled. We have known of a very rich plum pudding being mixed in England and sent to America in a covered bowl; it arrived perfectly good after a month's voyage, the season being winter.
Take three-quarters of a pound of beef, two ounces of ham, one tablespoon of butter (or one-half tablespoon of lard), some bread, some parsley, and a piece of onion. Chop up the onion fine and put it in a saucepan with the butter (or lard). When it is colored, put in the parsley and the ham cut up into little pieces, at the same time add the bread cut up into three or four small dice, salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. Mix all together well. Cut the meat into six slices, pound them to flatten out; salt slightly, and when the other ingredients are cooked, put a portion on each slice of meat. Then roll up the meat like sausages, put them on skewers, alternating with a piece of fried bread of the same size. Butter well, roll in fresh bread crumbs, and broil on the gridiron over a slow fire. These are nice served with salad.
Take fat pork cut in slices or mince, season it with pepper, salt, sweet marjoram and thyme, cloves, mace and nutmeg, make holes in the beef and stuff it the night before cooked; put some bones across the bottom of the pot to keep from burning, put in one quart Claret wine, one quart water and one onion; lay the round on the bones, cover close and stop it round the top with dough; hang on in the morning and stew gently two hours; turn it, and stop tight and stew two hours more; when done tender, grate a crust of bread on the top and brown it before the fire; scum the gravy and serve in a butter boat, serve it with the residue of the gravy in the dish.
Take the bone out of a round of fresh beef, and beat the meat well all over to make it tender. Chop and mix together equal quantities of sweet marjoram and sweet basil, the leaves picked from the stalks and rubbed fine. Chop also some small onions or shalots, and some parsley; the marrow from the bone of the beef; and a quarter of a pound, or more of suet. Add two penny rolls of stale bread grated; and pepper, salt, and nutmeg to your taste. Mix all these ingredients well, and bind them together with the beaten yolks of four eggs. Fill with this seasoning the place from whence you took out the bone; and rub what is left of it all over the outside of the meat. You must, of course, proportion the quantity of stuffing to the size of the round of beef. Fasten it well with skewers, and tie it round firmly with a piece of tape, so as to keep it compact and in good shape. It is best to prepare the meat the day before it is to be cooked. Cover the bottom of a stew-pan with slices of bacon. Lay the beef upon them, and cover the top of the meat with more slices of bacon. Place round it four large onions, four carrots, and four turnips, all cut in thick slices. Pour in from half a pint to a pint of water, and if convenient, add two calves' feet cut in half. Cover the pan closely, set it in an oven and let it bake for at least six hours; or seven or eight, according to the size. When it is thoroughly done, take out the beef and lay it on a dish with the vegetables round it. Remove the bacon and calves' feet, and (having skimmed the fat from the gravy carefully) strain it into a small sauce-pan; set it on hot coals, and stir into it a tea-cupful of port wine, and the same quantity of pickled mushrooms. Let it just come to a boil, and then send it to table in a sauce-tureen. If the beef is to be eaten cold, you may ornament it as follows:-- Glaze it all over with beaten white of egg. Then cover it with a coat of boiled potato grated finely. Have ready some slices of cold boiled carrot, and also of beet-root. Cut them into the form of stars or flowers, and arrange them handsomely over the top of the meat by sticking them on the grated potato. In the centre place a large bunch of double parsley, interspersed with flowers cut out of raw turnips, beets, and carrots, somewhat in imitation of white and red roses, and marygolds. Fix the flowers on wooden skewers concealed with parsley. Cold à-la-mode beef prepared in this manner will at a little distance look like a large iced cake decorated with sugar flowers. You may dress a fillet of veal according to this receipt. Of course it will require less time to stew.
Slice up the tomatoes and put them into a saucepan with the butter, herbs, pepper, salt, sugar, and gravy. Stir about until it becomes quite a pulp; then rub through a sieve, season to taste, and let it get quite cold. Cut the beef into thin slices and lay it in a saucepan, pour over the cold sauce and let it get hot through, very slowly. Arrange on a hot dish, and garnish with fried sippets of bread or toast.
Take 1-1/2 lbs. of lean veal from the fillet, and cut it in long thin slices; scrape with a knife till nothing but the fibre remains; put it in a mortar, pound it ten minutes or until in a purée; pass it through a wire sieve (use the remainder in stock), then take 1 lb. of good fresh beef suet, which skin, shred and chop very fine; put it in a mortar and pound it, then add 6 oz. of panada (that is, bread soaked in milk, and boiled till nearly dry) with the suet; pound them well together, and add the veal, season with 1 teaspoonful of salt, 1/4 teaspoonful of pepper, 1/2 that of nutmeg; work all well together; then add four eggs by degrees, continually pounding the contents of the mortar. When well mixed, take a small piece in a spoon, and poach it in some boiling water, and if it is delicate, firm, and of a good flavor, it is ready for use.
