A guide to modern cookery

This done, dish the sections of the tail in a cocotte; add some small, cooked mushrooms; clear the cooking-liquor of grease; reduce it, and thicken it slightly with fecula. Strain this thickened cooking-liquor over the sections of the tail and the mushrooms, and set to boil very gently for ten minutes. Serve thus in the cocotte set on a dish, and send a timbale of chestnut purée to the table at the same time. 1161—QUEUE DE BCEUF FARCIE Choose a large ox tail, and bone it carefully without bursting it. Lay it on a napkin, and stuff it with a forcemeat consisting of the following ingredients :—Three-quarters Ib. of very lean beef and one-half lb. of chopped fat bacon, the two mixed with four oz. of bread-crumbs soaked in milk and pressed; two whole eggs; three oz. of truffle peel; one-half oz. of salt, a pinch of ' pepper, and a very little spice. Sew up the tail, cover it with a piece of linen after the manner of a galantine, and cook it gently for three hours in a very light stock with vegetables as for boiled beef. At the end of the three hours take it out of the linen; put it into a sautépan, the bottom of which should be garnished as for a braising; add a little of the cooking-liquor of the tail, and complete the cooking, basting often the while. Take care to baste more frequently towards the close of the operation with the view of properly glazing the meat. When about to serve, dish it, after having removed all string, and lightly coat the bottom of the dish with a sauce consisting of the cooking-liquor, reduced and thickened with arrow-root. Send what remains of the cooking-liquor in a sauceboat. Serve separately either a purée, a garnish of braised vegetables, or one of the sauces suited to pieces of beef. 1162—QUEUE DE BCEUF GRILLEE Cut the tail into sections twice the usual length, and cook these in a stewpan for five hours with salted water and aromatics. Drain the sections; dry them well; dip them in melted butter, and roll them in very fine bread-crumbs. Sprinkle with melted butter, and set to grill gently. Grilled ox tail may be served with any vegetable purée. An ordinary Soubise, or one prepared ‘‘a la Noailles,’’ as expiained under the piece of beef of that name, also suits very well. In any case, the Soubise should be sufficiently thick. Such sauces as a la Diable, Hachée, Piquante, Robert, Tomato, Italienne, &c., are also suited to grilled ox tail. N.B.—When the adjunct to grilled ox tail is a highly-seasoned sauce, the sections should first be covered with a coat of mustard, then dipped in melted butter, and finally rolled in bread-crumbs. 1163—QUEUE DE BCEUF EN HOCHEPOT Cut the tail into sections, and put these into a stewpan of convenient size, with two pig’s trotters, each of which must be cut into four or five pieces, and one pig’s ear. Cover the whole with cold water; add salt to the extent of one-third oz. per quart of the liquid; set to boil; skim, and leave to cook gently for two hours. This done, add one small cabbage, cut into quarters, parboiled and cooled; ten small onions; five oz. of carrots, and the same weight of turnips, cut to the shape of large, garlic cloves. Set the whole to cook for a further two hours at least. When about to serve, dish the sections of tail in a circle; put the vegetable garnish in the centre, and surround the latter with the pig’s ear cut into small, narrow strips, and ten grilled chipolata sausages. Serve, separately, a timbale of potatoes cooked a l’anglaise. VARIOUS PREPARATIONS OF BEEF, 1164—STEWED STEAKS AND ONIONS Select some steaks one and one-third inches thick; fry them in butter on both sides, and set them to braise in short moistening, with a sufficient quantity of quartered and browned onions to constitute an abundant garnish.