The "Queen" cookery books: Pickles and Preserves

Beef Sausages. — These are generally made of the scraps and trimmings left over after cutting up joints, and are consequently apt to be tough and hard, but they will be found excellent if good lean beef, free from gristle and sinew, be used, the best proportions being 14oz. lean beef to 8oz. to lOoz beef fat or suet, and 4oz. to 6oz. of breadcrumbs, seasoning rather highly with salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Some people add a little finely minced shallot and a tiny pinch of saltpetre. Smoked Scotch Sausages. — The best way to make these is when a “ mart ” is being salted down for the winter. Take some beef that has been salted for two days, and mince it with some suet; season highly with salt, pepper, and onion or shallot, then fill the skins, tie and twist them into shape, and dry the sausages, or smoke them for a month or so in the chimney. Jewish Sausages. — Grate some Hamburg beef, add to it half its weight of finely minced suet, and 2|oz. powdered allspice for each pound of meat. Pass it all twice through the mincer, then pound to a smooth paste, and fill some skins, leaving room for them to swell a little. Steam for thirty-five to forty-five minutes, then let them cool, and when cold brush them over with boiled olive oil. The following recipes do not refer to sausages, but will be found both excellent and useful. Beef Collared. — For this choose the thin flank, and see that the meat is young-, tender, and not too fat. Rub this well with salt and a very little saltpetre, and let it drain for a night ; then rub it thoroughly with a mixture of salt, sugar, pepper, and allspice, and let it lie in this for ten days, if the weather is cold, turning it daily, and basting it well with its own pickle. Now bone it, removing all gristle and the coarse inner skin, dry it, strew the inside with minced herbs and quatre epices (or cook’s pepper), then roll it up as neatly and tidily as possible, binding it with strips of calico, and then with tape ; now press it under a heavy weight for some hours, after which undo the bandages, re-roll the meat, tie it up again very tightly, then put it on in boiling water with a bunch of herbs and some soup vegetables, bring the water again to the boil, and then simmer it very slowly till cooked, which it will be in about three or four hours. When cooked, again press it till perfectly cold, and do not take off the bandage till it is. (A good shoulder of mutton, boned, can be used thus.) Beef, Dutch. — Choose a good-sized round of beef and rub it well with brown sugar, leaving it in its pickle for three days, turning and rubbing it constantly, then wipe it, and rub it thoroughly with 2oz. of saltpetre well pounded, and mixed with 4oz. of common and 4oz. of bay salt ; keep it in this for a fortnight, turning it daily, then roll it up tight in a cloth, and press it under a heavy weight, after which you smoke it, still rolled up in its cloth. Boil or stew it piecemeal as it is wanted, pressing it well till cold, when it is excellent grated. Some people m 2 pickle their beef like this, but add nutmeg and mace to the spices with which it is rubbed for the fortnight.