Beef's Heart

Wash, the heart well, and soak it in a pan of tepid water till all the blood is drawn out of the ventricles, and it is made very clean and dry. Next par-boil it a quarter of an hour. Then stuff the cavities with a forcemeat made of minced veal, bread-crumbs, butter or minced suet, and sweet herbs, seasoned with a little pepper and nutmeg; or it may be stuffed simply with sage and onions. Sew up the openings with coarse brown thread, lest the forcemeat should fall out. Put the heart on a spit, and roast it before a clear fire, for near two hours; basting it well with nice fresh butter. Thicken the gravy with a little flour, and stir into it a glass of port wine, or of tarragon vinegar. Have ready a hot dish and a heated cover. Serve up the heart as hot as possible, for it soon chills, and pour the gravy around it. The gravy should be heated to a boil in a small sauce-pan.

Calves' Hearts are cooked in the same manner. As they are small, it takes four calves' hearts to make a dish.

Hearts may be sliced and stewed with onions and sweet herbs, adding to the stew a little salad oil.

Beef Patties

A nice way of disposing of underdone roast beef, is to mince fine all the lean, and a very little of the fat. Season it with cayenne, and powdered nutmeg, or mace, or else chopped sweet herbs. If you have any stewed mushroom-gravy, moisten the meat with that.

Make a nice paste, and cut it into small circular sheets, rolled out not very thin. Cover one half of each sheet of paste with the minced beef (not too near the edge) and fold over the other half, so as to form a half moon. Wet your fingers with cold water, and pinch together the two edges of the half moon. Then crimp them with a sharp knife. Lay the patties in square baking pans, prick them with a fork, and bake them brown. Or you may fry them in lard. Serve them up hot, as side dishes.

Cold veal, minced with cold ham, or tongue, makes very nice patties; also cold chicken or turkey.

A Beef Steak Pie

Stew two pounds or more, of fine tender sirloin steaks, divested of fat and bone, and cut rather thin. Season them with a very little salt and pepper; and, when about half done, remove them from the fire, and keep them warm, saving all the gravy. Make a nice paste, allowing to two quarts of flour one pound and a quarter of fresh butter. Divide the butter into four quarters. Rub one half into the pan of flour, and make it into a dough with a very little cold water. Roll it out into a large sheet, and with a broad knife stick over it, at equal distances, one of the remaining divisions of butter. Then sprinkle it with more flour, fold it, and roll it out again into a large sheet. Put on the remainder of the butter in bits, as before. Then fold it again. Cut the paste into equal halves, and roll them out into two sheets, trimmed into round or oval forms. With one sheet line a pie-dish, and fill it with your meat, adding, if convenient, some mushrooms, or some fresh oysters, or the soft part of a few clams, and some blades of mace. Use the other sheet of paste as a cover for the pie, uniting the edges with the under crust by crimping it nicely. Of the trimmings of the paste, make an ornament or tulip, and stick it into the slit at the top of the pie.