saltpetre, 3 oz. of coarse sugar, 1 oz. of cloves, 1 grated nutmeg, 1/2
oz. of allspice, 1 lb. of salt, 1/2 lb. bay-salt.
_Mode_.--Let the beef hang for 2 or 3 days, and remove the bone. Pound
spices, salt, &c. in the above proportion, and let them be reduced to
the finest powder. Put the beef into a pan, rub all the ingredients well
into it, and turn and rub it every day for rather more than a fortnight.
When it has been sufficiently long in pickle, wash the meat, bind it up
securely with tape, and put it into a pan with 1/2 pint of water at the
bottom; mince some suet, cover the top of the meat with it, and over the
pan put a common crust of flour and water; bake for 6 hours, and, when
cold, remove the paste. Save the gravy that flows from it, as it adds
greatly to the flavour of hashes, stews, &c. The beef may be glazed and
garnished with meat jelly.
_Time_.--6 hours.
_Seasonable_ all the year.
_Note_.--In salting or pickling beef or pork for family consumption, it
not being generally required to be kept for a great length of time, a
less quantity of salt and a larger quantity of other matters more
adapted to retain mellowness in meat, may be employed, which could not
be adopted by the curer of the immense quantities of meat required to be
preserved for victualling the shipping of this maritime country. Sugar,
which is well known to possess the preserving principle in a very great
degree, without the pungency and astringency of salt, may be, and is,
very generally used in the preserving of meat for family consumption.
Although it acts without corrugating or contracting the fibres of meat,
as is the case in the action of salt, and, therefore, does not impair
its mellowness, yet its use in sufficient quantities for preservative
effect, without the addition of other antiseptics, would impart a
flavour not agreeable to the taste of many persons. It may be used,
however, together with salt, with the greatest advantage in imparting
mildness and mellowness to cured meat, in a proportion of about one part
by weight to four of the mixture; and, perhaps, now that sugar is so
much lower in price than it was in former years, one of the obstructions
to its more frequent use is removed.
TO DRESS BEEF KIDNEY.
I.