For this dish you will require a piece of beef from the round, free from sinews or gristle, and compact in character. It is much easier to prepare a large piece of beef a la mode satisfactorily than a smaller cut, and nothing less than seven or eight pounds should be selected. Ten, twelve, and even fourteen pound pieces may be used with good results. Direct your butcher to "plug" the beef with strips of salt pork. Or you may do this yourself with the aid of a larding-needle, or a long, sharp, narrow-bladed carving-knife. Pierce the beef with this from top to bottom, and draw through the hole thus made a strip of fat salt pork about the thickness of your middle finger, and long enough to project about half an inch each side of the beef. These lardoons should be about two inches'apart. Between them make deep incisions, and fill these with a forcemeat composed of bread-crumbs and finely minced pork, in the proportion of one part of the pork to two of the bread-crumbs. Season this highly with pepper, allspice, minced parsley, thyme, and sweet-marjoram, and moisten with vinegar and a little Worcestershire sauce. Cram the holes to overflowing with this mixture, and crowd it into all crevices and interstices of the meat. Bind a stout piece of muslin around the sides of the beef, to keep the round in shape, and then lay it in a broad pot, cover it with cold water, and strew over it a minced onion, a sliced cartot, a bay-leaf, six cloves, a couple of blades of mace, a few sprigs of pa sley and of celery-tops. Cook the meat very slowly, fifteen minutes to the pound. It should be tender enough to be pierced easily with a fork when it is done. Let it cool in the water, take it out, lay it between two flat surfaces, under a heavy weight and do not take off the cotton band until just before it goes to the table. If properly prepared, it will show a prettily mottled surface when sliced across with a sharp knife, and will be an attractive as well as a delicious dish.

FILLET OF BEEF may be roasted plain, or larded with strips of fat salt pork and braised, as directed in the foregoing recipes.