Things Mother Used to Make/Meat Dishes

by Lydia Maria Gurney

MEAT DISHES

A La Mode Beef

• 3 Pounds of Beef
• 6 Onions
• 4 or 5 White Turnips
• Potatoes
• Salt

Take three pounds of a cheap cut of beef. Wash, put into an iron pan, sprinkle over it salt to taste. Pare six onions, more or less, according to size of family, and prepare four or five small white turnips sliced thin. Lay these around the meat, and pour over all a quart of cold water. Put into the oven and bake three hours. Pare potatoes enough for the family, putting them in an hour and a half before serving. This is a most delicious way to cook beef. As the water cooks away, add more. Thicken the gravy, with flour wet with water, as you would with any roast meat.

Beefsteak Pie

• 2 Pounds of Beef (any cheap cut will do)
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tablespoonful of Salt

Cut the meat into small pieces; cover with cold water, salt and put into the oven; cut the onion into small pieces and add. Bake three hours in an earthen dish. Half an hour before serving, put over the top a crust, made of two cupfuls of flour, two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, one-half teaspoonful of salt, and one tablespoonful of lard. Wet with water or milk, as for biscuits.

Beef Stew with Dumplings

• 3 Pounds of Shin-bone with Meat
• 6 Potatoes
• 2 Large Onions
• 1 Tablespoonful of Salt

Wash the meat, put into a kettle, cover with cold water and boil four hours. Add the salt, and more water, as it boils away. Pare the onions, wash and slice thin; put them in with the boiling meat, allowing two hours for cooking. Pare potatoes, wash, slice thin; put them in with the meat and onions, allowing three-quarters of an hour for cooking.

Dumplings

• 2 Heaping Cupfuls of Flour
• 2 Teaspoonfuls of Cream of Tartar
• 1 Teaspoonful of Baking Soda
• 1 Teaspoonful of Lard
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• 1 Glass of Water

Roll out an inch thick and cut into round pieces. Put these on a wire plate, on top of the meat; cover and let boil twenty minutes. Lift them out, and thicken the stew with three dessertspoonfuls of flour, wet with a scant cup of water.

New England Boiled Dinner

This consists of corned beef, white and sweet potatoes, cabbage, beets, turnips, squash, parsnips, and carrots. The quantity depends upon the size of the family. Eight pounds of meat is sufficient for a family of eight. Boil the meat four hours, the beets three hours, the cabbage one and a half hours, squash and turnips three-quarters of an hour. Boil these in one kettle, all together. Beets, carrots and parsnips should be boiled with the skin on. Pare the potatoes, pare and slice the squash and turnip. Pick the outer leaves from cabbage and cut in quarters. When done, pare parsnips and carrots. Drop the beets into cold water and slip the skin off with the hand.

Brunswick Stew

• 1 Chicken or 3 Pounds of Lamb
• 4 Ears of Corn
• 6 Tomatoes
• 1 Onion
• 4 Potatoes
• Salt and Pepper

Cook the chicken or lamb until tender in two quarts of water. Take from the water and chop fine. Put back in the liquor, add the corn, cut from the cob, tomatoes, onion, and potatoes all chopped, salt and pepper to taste. Cook two hours. In winter this can be made by using canned corn and tomatoes.

How to Corn Beef

A piece of fresh beef weighing seven or eight pounds is sufficient for a family of eight. Wash, clean and put it in an earthen dish, twenty-four hours before cooking. Cover with cold water, and add a cup and a half of ice-cream salt. When ready to cook it, remove from the brine and wash, placing it in cold water. Cook four hours.

Corn Beef Hash

• Corned Beef
• Potatoes
• Lump of Butter
• Milk
• Salt and Pepper

Chop the meat fine, add the same bulk of potatoes or a little more. Put into a saucepan or spider a lump of butter the size of an egg, and a few spoonfuls of milk or water. When bubbling, put in the meat and potatoes, and a little salt and pepper, if you like. Stir for a while, then let it stand ten or fifteen minutes, until a crust is formed at the bottom. Loosen from the pan with a cake-turner. Turn a warm platter over it. Turn pah and hash together quickly and serve. If you have a scant quantity, place it on slices of toasted bread, which have been buttered and wet with hot water.

Breaded Pork Chops

• 6 Chops
• 1 Egg
• ½ Cupful of Milk
• 1 Cupful of Bread Crumbs
• Pinch of Salt

Beat the egg and milk together, adding the salt. Dip the chops into this mixture, then into the crumbs. Fry in hot fat. Veal cutlets can be served in the same way.

Potted Beef

• 3 Pounds of a Cheap Cut of Beef
• 3 Onions
• ½ Can of Tomatoes
• Salt to taste

Put the meat into a kettle, cover with cold water and boil slowly for three or four hours. Add salt and onions, cut fine. Put the tomato through a colander. Boil all together, and, as the water boils away, add more. Serve the meat hot. The liquor makes a delicious soup, thickened with two tablespoonfuls of flour.

A Fine Way to Cook Veal

• 2 Pounds of Veal, or according to size of family
• 1 Egg
• Bread Crumbs
• Milk, Salt and Pepper

Cut the veal into small pieces, a good size for serving, and season with salt and pepper. Dip into the egg. Which has been beaten light, then into the bread crumbs. Have a little pork fat (lard will do) in a frying-pan, and cook until brown. Set on the back of the stove and cook slowly for ten minutes. Cover with milk, and bake in the oven very slowly for one hour in a covered pan. The toughest veal, cooked in this way, will be as tender as chicken.

Veal Patties

• 1½ Cupfuls of Boiled Rice
• 1 Cupful of Veal
• ½ Teaspoonful of Salt
• ½ Teaspoonful of Poultry Dressing
• 1 Egg
• 1 Tablespoonful of Milk

Grind or chop the veal, salt and stir into the rice with the dressing; beat the eggs, add milk, and stir all together. Drop a tablespoonful spread out thin on the griddle, and fry as you would griddle-cakes. Chicken, pork, or lamb may be used instead of veal.