"Though we cannot have regular roasting-roasts, we may have pot-roasts.
To make those you buy a sort of square piece from the round. Do not let
the butcher persuade you to get a long, thin piece; insist on a chunk.
Sear this all over by pressing it down in a hot frying-pan, first on one
side and then on the other; this makes a covering that keeps in the
juices. Then simmer it a long, long time in a deep covered dish; a
casserole, or a crock, or some such thing. When it is half-done put in
salt and pepper, chopped onions, and plenty of finely minced vegetables,
and keep on cooking till it is tender and the juice is pretty well
absorbed. You can cook it in the tireless stove all day, or keep it shut
up in the oven of the range, or let it cook slowly on the back of it;
but it must cook very slowly and a long, long time. This is all good
solid meat, and a four-pound piece will easily make three meals, with
perhaps something over for croquettes.
"Beef stew is just this same sort of thing; beef cut in finger lengths,
and cooked with vegetables till very soft. Serve that with the gravy
thickened. Chopped beef you can have in a dozen ways. Buy cheap beef and
put it through your own meat-chopper, to be quite sure it is perfectly
clean. Sometimes I get three pounds at once, and make up two pounds into
beef loaf, mixing it with a cup of bread crumbs, an egg, salt, and
pepper, and a little bit of salt pork. I put it in a bread tin and bake
it two hours, basting it well with melted butter and water mixed, and
serve it hot, with either a brown gravy or a tomato sauce. That is a
dish good enough for a king. For the second dinner you slice what is
left, and heat this in the gravy or tomato; or, have brown gravy with
the loaf and thick tomato with the slices.
"The other pound I make into a steak. Now real porter-house steak is far
too costly for you and me, but I recommend this substitute; you will be
surprised to see how exactly it looks like a porter-house and how good
it tastes. Copy the shape and size of the real thing, and flatten out
the chopped meat and make it into a long piece, larger at one end than
the other. Have the butcher give you some strips of suet and press one
down through the middle, to represent the bone; put the other one all
around the steak to look like the edge of fat. Then put this into a hot,
dry frying-pan and cook it, turning it only once and dusting with salt
and pepper as you do so. Do not overcook it, as it should be pink
inside. Take it up on a hot platter, put a little butter on top and
parsley around the edge, and, behold, a perfectly gorgeous
porter-house!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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