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Another Way to Stew a Round of Beef

A historical recipe from Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, by Eliza Leslie (1840).

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A historical recipe

Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, by Eliza Leslie (1840). Project Gutenberg eBook #9624.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Ingredients 2 ingredients

  1. two glasses of wine
  2. three large onion

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. Take a round of fresh beef (or the half of one if it is very large) and remove the bone.
  2. The day before you cook it, lay it in a pickle made of equal proportions of water and vinegar with salt to your taste.
  3. Next morning take it out of the pickle, put it into a large pot or stew-pan, and just cover it with water.
  4. Put in with it two or three large onion a few cloves, a little whole black pepper, and a large glass of port or claret.
  5. If it is a whole round of beef allow two glasses of wine.
  6. Stew it slowly for at least four hours or more, in proportion to its size.
  7. It must be thoroughly done, and tender all through.
  8. An hour before you send it to table take the meat out of the pot, and pour the gravy into a pan.
  9. Put a large lump of butter into the pot, dredge the beef with flour, and return it to the pot to brown, turning it often to prevent its burning.
  10. Or it will be better to put it into a Dutch oven.
  11. Cover the lid with hot coals, renewing them as they go out.
  12. Take the gravy that you poured from the meat, and skim off all the fat.
  13. Put it into a sauce-pan, and mix with it a little butter rolled in flour, and add some more cloves and wine.
  14. Give it a boil up.
  15. If it is not well browned, burn some sugar on a hot shovel, and stir it in.
  16. If you like it stuffed, have ready when you take the meat out of the pickle, a force-meat of grated bread crumbs, sweet herbs, butter, spice, pepper and salt, and minced parsley, mixed with beaten yolk of egg.
  17. Fill with this the opening from whence you took the bone, and bind a tape firmly round the meat.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Large pot
  • Casserole pot
  • Chef's knife
  • Cutting board
  • Grater
  • Wooden spoon
  • Slotted spoon
Source Public domain in the USA
Credit

From Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, by Eliza Leslie (1840). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #9624 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9624). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.