Practical household cookery

Note, — Steaks cut as above can be filled and cooked with other salpicons or oysters, simply blanched in boiling water for two minutes, drained, and freed from any particle of shell. This mode of cooking steaks has been appropriated lately by several cooks and amateurs, as of their own invention. I may, however, say that it was introduced by me at the St. James's Hall Restaurant either in 1875 or 1876. 516. RUMP-STEAK. OYSTER SAUCE. Take a rump-steak weighing about two pounds and cut one inch thick ; pour a tablespoonful of oil on a plate ; pass both sides of the steak over the oil, and broil it over a moderate fire for about seven minutes each side. When cooked sprinkle both sides with salt, dress it on a dish, and serve with some Oyster sauce (No. 186) in a sauceboat apart. Note. — Rump-steak broiled as above can also be served plain, or with Sharp, Italian, or Tomato sauce, as well as with grilled or stewed mushrooms. 517. RUMP-STEAK. ANCHOVY BUTTER. Prepare and cook a rump- steak as in the foregoing. Meanwhile make some anchovy butter (No. 161), lay it on a hot dish ; put the steak on the butter, and serve with cither chipped or fried potatoes. CHAPTER X. REMARKS ON VEAL. Veal is one of the most nutritious, palatable, and wholesome meats that can be cooked, besides playing a great part in the different culinary preparations of soups, sauces, and jellies ; but veal, like lamb, should never be eaten when over two months old, for the flesh gets coarse and loses flavour and delicacy, as well as whiteness. The veal from Pontoise (France) possesses a world-wide repute for its quality, savour, and whiteness of flesh ; but calves are never killed over eight weeks old in that country. 518. VEAL, HOUSEWIFE STYLE. Procure a loin. Bone it ; cut cut the kidney ; trim off some of the encircling fat and put the kidney back in its place ; flatten the flap and fold it under so as to cover the kidney, and fillet and tie the piece of meat with string in order to keep it in shape. Or take a round cut from ofif a leg of veal, weighing five or six pounds ; bone it, and fasten it round with string. Put either in a well-buttered braizing-pan over the fire to brown ; when of a nice golden colour all round moisten with a quart of broth, add three whole carrots, two onions with two cloves stuck in each, a "bouquet garni," salt and pepper to taste, and set to simmer very gently for about two hours and a half, with the pan partly covered, not forgetting to baste often and turn the meat during that time. Then cover the pan ; put a good shovel of live-coal and embers on the lid, and let it simmer for half an hour, taking care meanwhile to baste the meat at least five times with its own gravy. When the meat is cooked, which can be ascertained by pricking it with a trussing-needle, drain it, and keep hot on a dish ; remove the carrots carefully by themselves — and keep them hot too — strain the gravy through a pointed strainer, skim off the fat, and reduce the gravy by quick boiling to a half-glaze ; add a little caramel if not sufficiently coloured. In the meantime cut the braized carrots into shape, dish them up with the beef together with a dozen small onions, previously glazed for that purpose; sprinkle over the reduced gravy, and serve. Note, — This mode of preparing veal is also served cold. In that case cook it the day before, and put in a basin with the strained gravy, which will set to a firm jelly ; and it will only have to be turned out of the basin on to a dish to serve. 519. BRAIZED VEAL, ITALIAN STYLE.