The Pattern cook-book

Finely chop the beef, which may be the ends of steaks or the remnants of a roast. Season with salt and pepper. For each pint of meat stir in a table-spoonful of flour, mixing thoroughly. Place the meat in a small stew-pan, and pour in enough milk to nearly cover. Simmer gently for ten minutes, and add a table-spoonful of butter. It is better not to use the fat of the beef when chopping it up, for the butter imparts a much better flavor to the whole. Toast six slices of bread, arrange them on a platter, spread the beef upon them, and serve at once. It is surprising what a really small quantity of meat will suffice for a breakfast when served in this way. shepherds' pie. One quart oi cold beef. Three table-spoonfuls of butter. Two table-spoonfuls of flour. One pint of water. Eight large potatoes. One cupful of hot milk. Salt and pepper. Cut the meat into thin slices, and season with salt and pepper. Place the meat in an earthenware dish, and over it pour a sauce made as follows : Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a frying-pan, and when hot, add the flour. Stir until brown, and pour in the water. Season with salt and pepper, and boil for three minutes. Pare, boil and mash the potatoes, and add to them the ME A TS. I 5 3 boiling hot milk, the " other spoonful of butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Spread this preparation over the sauce and bake for thirty minutes. Other meats beside beef may be used for this dish. [illustration: Shepherd's Pie] MEAT PIE. Make a crust as for pies (see " Desserts "), roll it rather thickly, and line a deep dish with it. Cut the beef in rather small pieces — about the size of an oyster — , slicing it thinly if possible. Dredge well with flour, and season with salt and pepper. Place a thick layer of meat in the dish, and dot it with small pieces of butter, add another layer and more butter, and so continue until all the meat is used. Squeeze a little lemon-juice over all. If there should be any gravy left from roast meat, add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, and pour it over the meat. In this case use less butter through the meat. If there is no gravy, add water to the meat to half of its height, but if gravy is used, and there is not enough to make up this quantity, add as much water as needful. Cover the top with a crust, pinching the edge of the under crust to that of the upper the same as for any other pie. Bake forty-five minutes. ESCALLOPED BEEF AND MACARONI. One-quarter pound of macaroni. One quart of cooked beef. One cupful of bread-crumbs. One table-spoonful of flour. Two table-spoonfuls of butter. One pint of water. Salt and pepper. Boil the macaroni slowly until soft — generally about forty minutes. Make a sauce by rubbing the butter and flour together and adding a pint of the water the macaroni was boiled in ; seasoning with salt and pepper. Place in the baking dish a layer of macaroni, and season well ; cover with part of the sauce, and arrange a layer of meat seasoned with salt and pepper; and continue with the layers of macaroni, sauce and meat until all the materials have been used. Cover the last layer with breadcrumbs, and bake for half an hour. Serve in the same dish. BAKED HASH OF RICE AND BEEF. One cupful of cooked beef. One cupful of cooked rice. One cupful of milk. One egg. Two table-spoonfuls of butter.