Mrs. Beeton's Dictionary of Every-Day Cookery: The "All About It" Books

any time. _Note._—Palates may be dressed in various ways with good onion sauce, tomato sauce, &c., &c., and may also be served in a _vol-au-vent_; but the above will be found a more simple method of dressing them. BEEF PICKLE. (This may also be used for any kind of Meat, Tongues, or Hams.) _Ingredients._—6 lbs. of salt, 2 lbs. of fine sugar, 3 oz. of powdered saltpetre, 3 gallons of spring water. _Mode._—Boil all the ingredients gently together, so long as any scum or impurity arises, which carefully remove; when quite cold, pour it over the meat, every part of which must be covered with the brine. This may be used for pickling any kind of meat, and may be kept for some time, if boiled up occasionally with an addition of the ingredients. _Time._—A ham should be kept in pickle for a fortnight; a piece of beef weighing 14 lbs., 12 or 15 days; a tongue, 10 days or a fortnight. _Note._—For salting and pickling meat, it is a good plan to rub in only half the quantity of salt directed, and to let it remain for a day or two to disgorge and effectually to get rid of the blood and slime; then rub in the remainder of the salt and other ingredients, and proceed as above. This rule may be applied to all recipes for salting and pickling meat. BEEF, Potted. [Illustration: JAR FOR POTTED MEATS.] [COLD MEAT COOKERY. 1.] _Ingredients._—2 lbs. of lean beef, 1 tablespoonful of water, ¼ lb. of butter, a seasoning to taste of salt, cayenne, pounded mace, and black pepper. _Mode._—Procure a nice piece of lean beef, as free as possible from gristle, skin, &c., and put it into a jar (if at hand, one with a lid) with 1 tablespoonful of water. Cover it _closely_, and put the jar into a saucepan of boiling water, letting the water come within 2 inches of the top of the jar. Boil gently for 3½ hours, then take the beef, chop it very small with a chopping-knife, and pound it thoroughly in a mortar.