1840 - Directions for Cookery

A La Mode Beef

DDV CULINARY

TAKE the bone out of a round of fresh beef, and beat the meat well all over to make
it tender. Chop and mix together equal quantites of sweet marjoram and sweet basil,
the leaves picked from the stalks and rubbed fine. Chop also some small onions or
shalots, and some parsley; the marrow from the bone of the beef; and a quarter of
a pound, or more of suet. Add two penny rolls of stale bread grated; and pepper,
salt, and nutmeg to your taste. Mix all these ingredients well, and bind them
together with the beaten yolks of four eggs. Fill with this seasoning the place
from whence you took out the bone; and rub what is left of it all over the outside
of the meat. You must, of course, proportion the quantity of stuffing to the size
of the round of beef. Fasten it well with skewers, and tie it round firmly with a
piece of tape, so as to keep it compact and in good shape. It is best to prepare
the meat the day before it is to be cooked.

Cover the bottom of a stew-pan with slices of bacon. Lay the beef upon them, and
cover the top of the meat with more slices of bacon. Place round it four large onions,
four carrots, and four turnips, all cut in thick slices. Pour in from half a pint to
a pint of water, and if convenient, add two calves' feet cut in half. Cover the pan
closely, set it in an oven and let it bake for at least six hours; or seven or eight,
according to the size.

When it is thoroughly done, take out the beef and lay it on a dish with the vegetables
round it. Remove the bacon and calves' feet, and (having skimmed the fat from the gravy
carefully) strain it into a small sauce-pan; set it on hot coals, and stir into it a
teacup-full of port wine, and the same quantity of pickled mushrooms. Let it just come
to a boil, and then send it to table in a sauce-tureen.

If the beef is to be eaten cold, you may ornament it as follows:--Glaze it all over
with beaten white of egg. Then cover it with a coat of boiled potato grated finely.
Have ready some slices of cold boiled carrot, and also of beet-root. Cut them into
the form of stars or flowers, and arrange them handsomely over the top of the meat
by sticking them on the grated potato. In the centre place a large bunch of double
parsley, interspersed with flowers cut out of raw turnips, beets, and carrots,
somewhat in imitation of white and red roses, and marygolds. Fix the flowers on
wooden skewers concealed with parsley.

Cold A-la-mode beef prepared in this manner will at a little distance look like a
large iced cake decorated with sugar flowers.

You may dress a fillet of veal according to this receipt.
Of course it will require less time to stew.