A hash is a very convenient mode of disposing of cold meat, but without due attention is an indigestible preparation. The cook must always remember that the meat has been once cooked, and must now be very lightly done, or it will be tough and hard, unsuited for delicate stomachs. Meat that has been a little underdone the first time is the best for this purpose; the gravy should be first heated, and the meat merely simmered in it afterwards. The meat should be cut in thin slices, or small pieces, then all the sinews, skin, gristle, and bone, must be put into a saucepan with a little water, salt and pepper, a fried onion, a small piece of butter blended with a tablespoonful of flour, a little thyme and parsley, and a single clove, if the hash be beef. Let it boil down to three fourths of the quantity, then strain off the gravy, and flavor it with a little ketchup or Worcester sauce, put in the sliced meat, and make it hot over the fire, taking great care that it does not boil, and serve with toasted bread. No flavor or condiment should unduly predominate in this or any other kind of cookery; especially, to allow onions or garlic to be perceptible is an offence against good taste, the laws of cookery, and even those of health. The mushroom flavor is the most approved and delicate in what are called made dishes, yet it should always be so sklfully used, that only the aroma should be distinguished. This should be particularly attended to in all dishes composed of veal or fowls.

Beef Hashed, A La Francaise

Put a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and a tablespoonful of flour, into a stew-pan, simmer them over the fire for a minute, and stir into them a finely chopped onion and a dessertspoonful of minced parsley; when thoroughly browned, add a seasoning of pepper, salt and nutmeg, and put to it half a pint of water. Place in the beef, cut it into small but thick slices; let it stand by the fire and heat gradually; and when near boiling point, thicken the sauce with the yolk of three eggs, mixed with a tablespoonful of lemon juice.

Cold Beef With Potatoes

Take the meat from the bones, and cut it in small pieces; crack the bones small; put them into a saucepan with some salt, and a little more than cover them with cold water; let them stew until the water is reduced to one half; strain the bones from the gravy; pour the latter back into the stew-pan: season the meat with pepper and salt, and a little mace if preferred; put it with the gravy in the stew-pan, and add two or three raw potatoes pared and sliced; put the stew over the fire, and when the potatoes are done dish it up.

Small squares of toasted bread may be laid in the bottom of the dish.

A Dish From Cold Beef And Mashed Potatoes

Cut the cold meat into small slices about half an inch thick. Season the slices, and spread thinly over them some bread crumbs and some small lumps of butter. Take the gravy left from the joint, or stew a gravy from the bones; thicken it with butter rolled in flour, and season it with pepper and salt. Or the bits of meat, when not large enough to be sliced, as above, may be minced, seasoned, and mixed with mashed potatoes and flour. Make it into small cakes, and fry them a nice brown.