How To Pot Beef

Take three pounds of lean gravy beef, salt it twelve hours with half a pound of common salt and half an ounce of saltpetre; cut off all the skin and fat; cut the lean into pound pieces, and put it into an earthen pan, or stone jar that will just hold it, put two ounces of butter on the top, then cover it with the skin and fat that you cut off, and pour in half a pint of water; cover it close with white paper, and tie over that, strong brown paper, and set it in a slow oven for four hours; when it comes from the oven, pour the gravy from, it into a basin, throw away the skins and fat, shred it fine, moisten it with the gravy you poured from the meat, and pound it in a marble mortar with a little clarified butter, or, what is better, some beef marrow, till it is as fine a paste as possible, seasoning it (by degrees as you are beating it,) with black pepper and allspice, or cloves pounded, and grated nutmeg; put it in pots close as possible; set it in an oven for a few minutes, to make it set smooth in the pot; take it out, and when it is quite cold, cover it a quarter of an inch thick with clarified butter; to prepare which, see receipt, No. 259.

Observations

You may mince half a pound of ham or bacon, or a few anchovies, and pound it with the meat, with a glass of sherry, or some forcemeat, if you wish to have it very savoury.

Or, It is a very agreeable and economical- way of using the remains of a large joint of either roasted or boiled beef, veal, or ham, to mince it, and beat it in a mortar with the seasoning, etc, as in the former receipt.

Observations

Meat that has been boiled down for gra-vies, &c- till it is completely drained of all its succulence, beaten in a mortar with salt and spice, will make as good potted beef as if it is baked till its moisture is quite evaporated, which it must be, or it will not keep two days.

Beef Cakes

If you have any cold roast beef that is underdone, mince it fine, and then pound it in a marble mortar with a little fat bacon or ham; season it with a little pepper and salt; mix them well, and make it into small cakes three inches long, half as wide, and half an inch thick: fry these a light brown, and serve them with good gravy.

Bubble And Squeak, Or Fried Beef And Cabbage

For this, as for a hash, select those parts of the joint that have been least done; cut slices of cold boiled salted beef, sprinkle them with a little pepper, and just give them a brown with a bit of butter in a fryingpan: if it is fried too much it will be hard. Boil a cabbage, squeeze it quite dry, and chop it small; take the beef out of the fryingpan, and lay the cabbage in it; sprinkle a little pepper and salt over it; keep the pan moving over the fire for a few minutes; lay the meat in the middle of a dish? and the cabbage round it.

Hash Beef and Roast Beef Bones Broiled.

Hash Beef

To hash beef, see Receipt to hash mutton.

The best part to hash is the fillet or inside of the sirloin, and the good housewife will always endeavour to preserve this entire for this purpose.

Roast beef bones furnish a very relishing luncheon, prepared in the following manner.

Divide the bones, leaving good picking of meat on each; score them in squares, pour some melted butter on them, and pepper and salt; put them in a dish, and set them in a Dutch oven, and give them a brown on the gridiron.