The Pattern cook-book

A tough piece of meat may be made very tender by this mode of cooking. Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, season with salt and pepper and put it into an iron pot. Place the latter over a moderate heat, and brown the meat slowly, turning it frequently ; this will usually take about twenty minutes. When the roast is well browned, put in half a pint of boiling water, cover closely, and set the pot back where the meat will cook slowly. As the water steams away add a little more, half a pint at a time. Allow about fifteen minutes to each pound for a piece of meat that is not tough, but a very tough roast will require twice that time. Take up the meat, and add a small quantity of water to the juices in the kettle. Thicken the gravy with a little flour stirred to a thin paste with a little water, and serve in a separate dish. Boiled rice is generally eaten with a pot roast. STUFFED BEEFSTEAK. Use the round for this dish, having it cut half an inch thick. Lay the steak flat on the meat board, spread over it with a thin layer of butter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Take for the stuffing One and a-half pint of bread-crumbs. Two table-spoonfuls of butter. One small onion. One large tea-spoonful of salt. One-half tea-spoonful of pepper. Milk to moisten. Grate the crumbs fine, season with the salt and pepper, and rub in the butter ; then chop the onion fine, and add it to the crumbs. Moisten slightly with milk, being careful to put only enough in to soften the crumbs a little. Spread this stuffing over the steak, placing tiny bits of butter on top of it. Roll the steak up tightly, rolling away from rather than towards you, and keeping the stuffing in at the ends as the beef is rolled up. Wrap cord or common wrapping twine around the roll, using plenty of it, and winding it round and round until the meat is tightly compressed. Place the roll in an iron pot and roast the same as a pot roast. Remove the strings after laying the beef on the serving dish, pour the gravy around and over the meat, and serve hot. This stuffed steak is sometimes baked, and in that case a little water should be added to the pan together with any pieces of suet that have been trimmed off the meat. BEEFSTEAK AND ONIONS. For this dish the cut may be a porterhouse, a sirloin or the round ; when expense is to be considered, the last named cut will be found both economical and palatable. It should be pounded slightly to make it more tender. Heat a frying-pan until quite hot, and place the steak in it, adding no fat at all. Cook until the meat is either rare or well done, as may be preferred. If the finer cuts are used, care must be taken that the meat is not cooked too long, but the round will need to be fairly well cooked to make it juicy and tender. Remove the steak to the serving dish. Slice the onions thin, and turn them into the pan in which the steak was cooked. Cover the pan, and cook the onions slowly in the juices from the steak until they are tender ; then lift them out and place them on top of the steak. Add a little water to the juices in the pan, and thicken the gravy with a little flour or corn-starch wet in a little water. Season with salt and pepper, and pour over the onions and steak. This gravy should be a fine brown.