The hearthstone; or, Life at home

Now put the meat on a trivet in the kettle; half cover with boiling water ; and add a tablespoon of salt, a tea- spoonful of pepper, an onion and a small carrot cut fine, and two or three sprigs of parsley. Cook very slowly, allowing half an hour to a pound, and make gravy by the directions given for it in the preceding receipt. Braised beef is prepared by either method given here for a la mode beef, but cooked in a covered iron pan, which comes for the purpose, and which is good also for beef a la mode, or for any tough meat which requires long cooking, and is made tenderer by keeping in all the steam. Beefsteak Pie. — Three pounds of rump-steak, seasoning to taste of salt, cayenne and black pepper, crust water, the yolk of an egg. Have the steaks cut from a rump that has hung a few days, that they may be tender, and be particular that every portion is perfectly sweet. Cut the steaks into pieces about three inches long and two wide, allowing a small piece of fat to each piece of lean, and arrange the meat in layers in a pie-dish. Between each layer sprinkle a seasoning of salt, pepper, and, when liked, a few grains of cayenne. Fill the dish sufficiently with meat to support the crust, and to give it a nice raised appearance when baked, and not to look flat and hollow. Pour in sufficient water to half fill the dish, and border it with paste. Brush it over with a little water, and put on the cover; slightly press down the edges with the thumb, and trim off close to the dish. Ornament the pie with pieces of paste cilt in any shape that fancy may direct, brush it over with the beaten yolk of an egg, make a hole in the top of the crust, and bake in a hot oven for about one hour and a half Beefsteak pies may be flavored in various ways, with oysters and their liquor, mushrooms, minced onions, etc. For family pies suet may be used instead of butter or lard for the crust, and clarified beef-dripping answers very well where economy is an object. Pieces of underdone roast or boiled meat may be used in pies very advantageously, but always remove the bone from pie-meat unless it be chicken or game. Baked Beefsteak Pudding. — One and a half pounds of rumpsteak, one kidney, six ounces of flour, two eggs, not quite one pint of milk, salt to taste, pepper and salt. Cut the steak into nice square pieces with a small quantity of fat, and divide the kidney into small pieces ; make a batter of flour, eggs and milk in the above proportion ; lay a little of it at the bottom of the pie-dish ; then put in the steak and kidney, which should be well seasoned with pepper and salt, and pour over the remainder of the batter. Bake for one and a half hours in a brisk but not fierce oven. To Pickle Beef for Winter Use and for Drying. — Cut the beef into suitable pieces, sprinkle a little salt on the bottom of the barrel, pack the beef without adding salt, and when nicely packed, pour over it a brine made by dissolving six pounds of salt for each one hundred pounds of beef, in sufficient cold water to cover it. In three weeks such pieces as are designed for drying will be ready to hang up by soaking them over night to remove the salt from the outside.