Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management

After beef has been prepared by the butcher, wipe it with a wet cloth, put it in a very hot oven in a dripping-pan, and brown it quickly. After the beef is brown, season it with salt and pepper. If a frothed surface is desired, dredge the beef with dry flour, and pour over it several spoonfuls of the drippings in the pan every fifteen minutes while it is being baked. Do not put any water in the pan ; if the beef is not fat enough to yield drippings, use a little butter, or a slice of bacon or salt pork if their flavor is desired. After the beef is done to the desired degree, make the gravy as directed in the recipe for roast beef. In a hot oven, fifteen minutes to a pound will bake beef medium rare. Never try to bake meat in a cool oven. The oven, if too hot, can be cooled a little after the beef is brown, by opening the door ; but the heat should be as great as it can be without burning the meat. BEEF A LA MODE, WITH STUFFING. Cut several holes in a piece of the round of beef weighing about six pounds, and fill them with the following stuffing, binding wide tape or strips of clean cloth over the cuts to keep in the stuffing : Chop very fine three-quarters of a pound of raw beef, and a quarter of a pound of fat salt pork ; mix them with one pound of grated bread, a quarter of a pound of butter, one level teaspoonful each of powdered thyme, savory, cloves, and allspice, two teaspoonfuls of salt, one saltspoonful of pepper, and a dust of cayenne. After the beef is stuffed, lay it on skewers or a plate in a kettle ; pour over it three pints of boiling water, cover the kettle closely, and stew the beef over a gentle fire for four hours. When the beef is done, take it up, remove the tapes, and keep it hot. Take out the skewers or plate, thicken the gravy with a tablespoonful of flour mixed smoothly with a little of the REMOVES {RELEV&s). 3 15 gravy, boil the gravy for one minute, season it palatably with salt and pepper, add to it three tablespoonfiils of wine or tomato-catsup, and serve it with the beef. BEEF A LA DAUBE. As has been shown in the chapter on Carving, beef with strips of fat salt pork inserted with the grain of the meat may be cooked and served like beef a /a mode. Vegetables cut with a fluted knife, or with vegetable-scoops, as shown in the chapter devoted to vegetables, can be used as a garnish for beef a la daube ; or it may be cooked and served as directed in the preceding recipe, omitting the stuffing. LARDED FILET OF BEEF WITH TOMATOES. After a. filet or tenderloin of beef is trimmed, wipe it with a wet cloth, lard it as directed in the recipe for fricandeau of veal, and either roast or bake it according to the direc- mm Larded Filet of Beef with Stuffed Tomatoes. tions already given. Before placing the filel to cook, it is well to protect the lardoons with buttered paper. While the filel is being cooked, wipe as many medium-size fresh tomatoes as will surround it, and stuff and bake them as directed in the recipe for stuffed tomatoes. Just before the filel is done, remove the buttered paper, so that the lardoons may brown ; arrange the filet on a hot dish with the tomatoes around it, as shown in the accompanying cut, and serve it hot. Very small hearts of lettuce, closely