Beef in the Good Old Farmer Fashion

Ingredients

• two pounds of potatoes
• the onion
• the flank of beef
• half a pound of flour
• salt to taste
• a little pepper
• two good tablespoonfuls of dripping

Method

1. 1

   Wash the beef well, sprinkle it with seasoned flour on both sides.

2. 2

   Grease a large bag with beef dripping.

3. 3

   Mix the potatoes, carrots, turnips, and onions, sprinkle with a little salt.

4. 4

   Place a handful of this mixture and some dumplings in the bottom of the bag, then add the beef.

5. 5

   Press tightly, add remaining vegetables, and close the bag.

6. 6

   Preheat the oven, cook for 1.5 to 2 hours, then serve gently.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 5 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Soyer's standard cookery (1912) by Nicolas Soyer, page 282. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

the onion and turnips and scrape the carrot. Cut all into small squares. Wash well; leave on a plate till needed. Take a little suet or two good table- spoonfuls of dripping. Rub this into half a pound of flour, and salt to taste, being careful not to overdo this, and a little pepper. Mix to the ordinary dumpling consistency with cold water, and shape into dumplings about the size of a big Brazil nut. And now for beef in the good old farmer fashion. Wash the beef well, but do not dry it. Sprinkle it with STANDARD COOKERY. 417 seasoned flour — that is, flour to which a little pepper and salt have been added — on both sides. Now grease the large bag thickly with beef dripping. Take the potatoes out of their bowl. Do not dry them, but sprinkle them lightly with the seasoned flour. Then take the potatoes, carrots, turnips, and onions, and mix them all well together, sprinkling them with a very little salt. Take a handful of this mixture and some dumplings and put them into the bottom of the bag. Then put in the flank of beef. Press it in as tightly and as closely to the vegetables as possible, and if the bag admits put a few vegetables on top and under the joint. Add the remainder of the vegetables, etc., and close the bag. Light the oven gas beforehand, let it get as hot as it can for eight minutes. Then place the paper bag on the grid, put the grid on the shelf of the oven, and close the door. Turn the gas down half way, and leave the bag in for from an hour and a half to two hours. Then take out, empty into a very hot dish as gently as possible. Stir well with a spoon which has been dipped in boiling water. You will then have a dinner fit for a king. If you have not a wire grid you can use the ordinary gas grid. In this case allow another quarter of an hour for extra cooking. If you would like a sweet for which no attention is needed, and do not wish to use another bag, try the following: — Place a little sugar at the bottom of a clean empty jam jar, add a pint of well-washed gooseberries or peeled and cut-up rhubarb, half a pint of water, and cook the same time as the beef. If cooked in a greased bag instead of a jar this will be doubly delicious. When done serve it with sweet milk — i. e., half a pint of milk thickened with a tablespoon- ful of flour or corn-flour, and sweetened to taste. Monday. What is left over from Sunday will make the dinner for Monday. Grease a bag well as before. Cut up the remains of the stewed beef into small square pieces. Dust these with fresh seasoned flour. Put two pounds of potatoes, cut small and dusted with salt, into a greased bag as before. Sprinkle the meat with a little powdered sweet herbs, put into the bag, and add to it a handful of either rice, barley, or oatmeal, which has been soaking all night in cold water. If the water has not been quite all absorbed, add this also. Now add the remains of any gravy which may be over from the previous day. Close 4i8 STANDARD COOKERY. the bag, place it on grid as before, and cook for sixty minutes. Turn out into a hot dish. Stir as before and serve. A jam turnover will be just the right sort of substantial dish to follow the beef. For this you must have a bag. Rub four ounces of lard or good dripping into half a pound of flour

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.