Practical household cookery

Procure a piece of pickled round or silver-side of beef, weighing about eight pounds. Put this, after having washed it, into a pot with enough cold water to cover it welL Boil it; skim the scum as it rises to the surface; then drop in three or four whole carrots, two large onions with two cloves stuck in each, and, if handy, two heads of celery ; let the pot simmer by the side of the stove for two hours, and add four whole turnips. Let the simmering be continued for another hour, then add the quarters of a small cabbage ; boil gently again for an hour — making in all four hours' boiling ; after which, strain the beef, and dress it on a large hot dish, with the cooked vegetables as a garnish, alternately placed with half a dozen small suet dumplings, and serve. 602. BRISKET OF BEEF-ECARLATE. Briskets, like rounds of beef, are generally obtained from the butcher, all ready pickled, but that is not the proper way of salting or curing them : this must be effected in the following manner : — Mix well together in a pan a brine composed of six pounds of common salt, a quarter of a pound of saltpetre, half a pound of moist sugar, two bruised bay-leaves, half a teaspoon ful of thyme, and same quantity of winter-savory and sweet marjoram, also three blades of mace and twelve cloves. Take a brisket of beef well covered with fat, bone it ; use the bones for the stock. Rub the brisket well with the mixture for three or four minutes each day for five days in succession, taking care, in laying it on the brine in a cool place, that it should rest on the opposite side each day; then simply turn it over once a day for the succeeding five days, making altogether ten days for salting the piece of brisket — if to be eaten hot ; but if intended to be pressed and eaten cold (which i.s the usual manner), it should remain in the mixture at least five days longer, in order that the flavour of the herbs and spices should be sufficiently absorbed. This mode of salting is equally applicable to eveiy other kind of meat The brisket of beef being thus ready for cooking, place it in a pan with plenty of cold water and the same quantity of vegetables as in the foregoing instructions Boil, and skim, with the same care, for about four or five hours, according to the size of the brisket. When cooked, drain, and dress in the same manner as , the round of beef, with the vegetables as a garnish, if to be eaten hot ; or place in a perforated zinc box, made for that purpose, in a cool place. Lay on the meat a piece of board made to fit in the box, and put on this all the weights and stones you can get, in order to press the brisket well ; leave it thus for at least twelve hours, when the weights can be removed, the piece of meat trimmed and glazed (No. 362) ; then dress it in a cold dish with a few sprigs of parsley and serve. Note. — All the vegetables should be put in at the same time when the brisket is meant for pressing. 508. BRAIZED BEEF, CITIZEN STYLE.