Gancel's culinary encyclopedia of modern cooking

' All meats, chicken, large or small game, vegetables, fruits, butter for pastry should be fresh and of the finest quality. There are no four seasons today, as from the beginning of the year to the end, all products are to be found in the hot' house or the refrigerator. First in the list comes butcher’s meat, of which beef is — 475 — considered the best by the generality of any people. An ox should be kept five or six years before it is killed; it is then in its prime. “Ox beef” is the best. It is a fine-grained meat; the lean of a bright red color, intermingled with grains of fat, when it is well fed , on good grain. The fat should be white, not yellow, and the suet also white and firm. Beef should never be lean; it is tough and bad unless there is a good quantity of fat. Heifer- beef is paler than ox-beef and closer grained; the fat whiter, and the bones, of course, smaller. Bull-beef is only described to be avoided. It is dark colored and coarse grained; has very little fat, and a strong meaty smell about it. Of these joints choose the rib or sirloin, for roasting. If you purchase ribs of beef, let them be the middle ribs. You may have one, two, three or four ribs, as you will; but one rib is too thin to be economical, as it dries up in cooking. If, however, your family be small, a single rib with the bones taken out, are only good for rib steak. If you buy a sirloin, take care to have it cut from the chump end, which has a good under-cut or filets, as then, in addition to a roast joint, you will have another dish, i. e., “filet de bceuf,” one of the best dishes ever served. The ribs is preferred to the sirlojn by epicures; called in French “cotelette de bceuf,” but it is too large to serve whole. If a sufficiently large joint is cut, the chump end to roast. For the servant or “helper,” or as a dinner for a large family when economy is essential, the buttock of beef is excellent, and very profitable. It is cheaper than the other roasting portions of the ox; has no bones, and affords quantities of rich gravy. But it should be hurtg for some time until quite tender. The round, aitch-bone and silver-side are usually salted and boiled. The neck is used for making soup or gravy “jus;” ask for it as “gravy beef;” the thin flank is the part to be collared. , A rump steak” is to be ordered for frying, etc. A beefsteak does for stewing, etc. The inferior and cheaper parts of beef make excellent “bouilli” — a dish for which you will find directions below. Beef — a great many savory preparations are made from this marvelous animal. Ribs of beef, tenderloin, rib or sirloin steak, chateau briand, filet mignon. There are four different special preparations such as braised, boiled, broiled, roasted or saute, which are served with a different variety of sauces and garnishings, which is — 476 — the art of French cooking. Beef exceeds the total of all other meat used in the preparation of food in civilised countries. Veal. Veal should be small and at least 6 or 8 weeks old, and the kidney well covered with fat, or the flesh will be coarse. If veal is large it should be cheaper, as it is less delicate. The , flesh should be dry, closely grained, and not white; if it is moist and clammy it is stale, and not fit for cooking.;