Bohemian-American Cook Book/Beef

As every cook knows, the meat from different parts of the animal varies. The rump is best to use for boiled beef, but is must not be too fat. The brisket and flank do not have a good flavor and are suitable only for soup. As has already been stated, boiled beef tastes best when placed in boiling water, whereas if your aim is to get good soup only, the meat is placed in cold water. Beef, and in fact all meat, is more tender if not freshly killed. The meat sold by the packing houses is generally from three to six months old, it being kept in cold storage that long, before being put on the market. Such meat is very tender. The cook must use a little judgment in boiling beef. If the meat is from a young animal, a two pound piece may be boiled an hour and a half. If from an old animal, it will take longer. The meat must be boiled so long until it is easily pierced with a fork. If boiled too long, it crumbles and loses flavor. When putting the meat to boil, cover well and when it has come to a boil, let it simmer gently. If boiled rapidly, it will be tough. Boiled beef is cut into small pieces and usually served with a sauce.

Place in a saucepan a fourth of a pound of minced bacon and two sliced onions. When it begins to brown, add a piece of chuck steak well pounded and brown on both sides over a quick fire. Then add a cup of hot water, salt and pepper, a clove of garlic pounded to a paste with a little salt, cover and simmer over a slow ​fire. Be careful that it does not burn, and add a little hot water now and then, if necessary. A piece of young beef will be tender in two hours. When done, thicken the sance with a tablespoon of flour mixed smooth with a little water, pour over the meat and serve.

Place in a saucepan a piece of lard, one sliced onion, a bay leaf, a piece of lemon rind and one clove. Pound and salt two pounds of beef, add it to the foregoing, stew a while, dust with flour and stew a little longer, then add beef soup and a little wine and stew until the meat is tender. Before serving, sprinkle with grated lemon rind.

Pound well two pounds of nice beef, place in a crock, pour vinegar over it and allow it to stand thus twenty-four hours. When you are ready to prepare the meat, interlard with bacon, place it in the saucepan or kettle, add salt, vinegar, a little beef soup, one sliced onion, a sliced carrot, a bay leaf, several whole peppers, allspice, cloves. Cover and simmer slowly. In another saucepan place a tablespoon of butter; when it is hot, add a tablespoon of flour, one of sugar and blend together until brown. Add slowly two cups of hot soup, or hot water, and the liquor from the meat, having skimmed off the grease, boil it fifteen minutes, until it forms a thick, brown, slightly sour gravy. Skim off the fat, pour the gravy over the meat and let it simmer thus a little longer.

Pound thoroughly four pounds of nice beef, (rump is best) cut in slices an inch thick, pound again, sprinkle with salt, ground allspice and mace, spread on each ​slice of meat a very thin slice of bacon, roll up and fasten with a toothpick. Dip each roll in flour. Heat a piece of butter in a skillet, place the rolls therein, cover and fry about ten minutes over a medium fire, turning them once during this time. Then pour in from one side enough boiling water to half cover the rolls, being careful however, not to wet them from the top. Cover closely and stew the rolls an hour over a slow fire. When done, take out the toothpicks, arrange the rolls on a platter, place fried potatoes around them and pour the gravy over all.

Trim a pound and a half of boiled beef, taking out all the fat, gristle, etc. and mince the meat fine. Blend butter and flour until a light brown, add enough beef soup to make a thick gravy and let it boil fifteen minutes, stirring constantly. Cream together a piece of butter with three yolks, add this to the soup and beat all together well. Now add the minced meat, a tablespoon of minced parsley, a dash of pepper and salt and mix thoroughly. When cold, sprinkle a molding board with rolled crackers or bread crumbs, divide the mixture into sixteen parts, place them on the board, roll into squares, sprinkle each square with more bread crumbs and roll. Beat three whites, add a teaspoon of melted butter, a teaspoon of water and mix thoroughly. Dip each roll in this and then in bread crumbs. Fry in smoking fat (in a frying basket) until golden brown, take out, dust with a little salt, place on a platter, garnish with parsley and serve.

The proper cut for this dish is not always as easily obtainable here as in Bohemia. It must be the tenderloin, the portion from which porterhouse steak is cut, ​and as porterhouse steak is used in this country so much, the butcher rarely has any beef tenderloin on hand. However, if you wish to prepare this dish and can obtain the proper cut, trim it, interlard thickly with bacon, salt and place in a crock. Place in a saucepan one sliced onion, half of a whole ginger, several whole peppers and allspice, a pinch of thyme, one bay leaf, two cups of good vinegar and the same of water, and boil all together half an hour. Pour this over the prepared meat, allow it to stand thus two days, turning it every day. Bake in a slow oven in butter, basting with sour cream.

Wash four pounds of meat without any bones, trim off the fat, gristle, etc. and interlard with one pound of bacon cut into strips. Place in the pan one large onion sliced, several whole allspice, several whole peppers, a piece of ginger, two bay leaves. Place the meat in this, salt, dust with flour and add two cups of water. Roast in the oven, basting frequently. When done, cut the meat into neat pieces, add to the liquor a little lemon juice and grated lemon rind, and if you like it, a little sugar. Strain and pour over the meat, or serve in a separate dish.

Wash a rib roast, salt, stick whole ginger and cloves of garlic here and there into the meat, place in a baking pan, add several small onions into each of which you have stuck a clove, several bay leaves, one small sliced carrot, and a little water. Roast three or four hours, turning and basting it frequently. If the meat dries out, add hot water from time to time. When the meat is done, place on a platter, surround with boiled and peeled potatoes, pour over the meat the strained gravy and serve.

Roast beef is best when a large piece of meat is used, six pounds or more. However, four pounds is usually plenty for a small family. Dust the roast with salt and pepper, place in a deep pan, rub a tablespoon of butter over the top, pour a cup of hot water under it and roast in a hot oven. The oven should be very hot at first, so as to sear the meat, later it should be slower, so that the meat will be tender. After it has been roasting half an hour, sprinkle sliced onion over it and turn. When the meat is done, make a gravy of the fat. If very fat, pour off some and add a cup of hot water. Mix flour and water until smooth and thicken the gravy with it. The meat should roast fifteen minutes for every pound, so that a four pound roast requires one hour, etc.

Cut a piece of rump into medium sized pieces, pound and interlard with strips of bacon and dust with salt and pepper. Place a sliced onion and minced bacon in a skillet, add the meat, cover well and stew until the juice has evaporated. Then add a little vinegar, a little water, one or two bay leaves and stew until tender. Then take out the meat, strain the liquor, mix with about an equal quantity of sour cream, place the meat back in the skillet, pour the gravy over it, stew a while longer and serve.

Pound well a flank or round steak, dust with salt and pepper. Make a dressing by soaking three slices of bread in milk and then squeezing them dry, add two eggs, one minced onion fried in butter to a golden brown, minced parsley, a piece of good butter, a pinch ​of mace, salt and pepper, mix together and spread over the steak, roll up, tie around with strong thread. Place in a pan, pour a cup of hot water under it, dot bits of butter on top and bake slowly two hours, basting every ten minutes. When done, slice and serve.

Boil two pounds of beef with any vegetables you may have on hand, or you may use cold left-over meat. Slice nicely, cover with water, add two tablespoons of vinegar, a piece of lemon rind, half a minced onion, five or six allspice, four or five cloves, a bay leaf and salt. Cover and let it boil a while. Blend two tablespoons of butter with one of sugar, when brown, add a heaping tablespoon of flour and add this to the meat.

Mince half a pound of bacon and fry. Slice one large carrot, one celery root, one parsley root and one onion, mix all with the hot bacon, add two bay leaves, a pinch of thyme, five whole black peppers, five whole allspice, and brown all together. Salt two pounds of rump and stew it in the foregoing. If it dries out, add one or two tablespoons of hot water at the time, being careful that the meat does not get too dry. When the meat is tender, take it out, add to the liquor two cups of hot water and boil a while longer. Then strain and to the strained liquor add two cups of good sour cream, with which you have mixed two tablespoons of flour. Put the meat back into the gravy, stew a little longer, and serve with dumplings.

Beefsteak is an English and American dish. A great many Bohemians never learn to like it and they cannot understand its popularity among Americans. ​This is partly because it requires so little preparation, while Bohemian recipes call for a much longer and more thorough cooking of meats. Then, too, beefsteak is so often taken from poor cuts and is therefore tough and unpalatable. The real beefsteak is the porterhouse. The next best is sirloin and the next chuck steak, but neither of these has the flavor, juiciness and tenderness of the porterhouse.

If you wish to fry a porterhouse steak, it will not require much pounding, but the sirloin or chuck steaks need to be pounded well. Never wash a steak; if necessary, wipe it with a cloth. For a two pound steak place in a skillet two tablespoons of butter, or the fat trimmed from the steak, but never lard. When the butter or fat is smoking hot, place the steak in the skillet, salt and pepper the top, allow the underside to brown quickly, to keep in the juice, then turn, salt and pepper the other side, allow the underside to brown and then, if you like the steak well done, it need not fry as quickly as at the beginning. When the steak is done, add to the fat a little minced onion and when it has browned, add a little hot water and pour this gravy over the steak. If you wish, you may thicken it with a little flour.

Broiled steak is always rare and the true beefsteak lover prefers it this way, because it is the juiciest. For broiling, thicker slices of steak are used than for frying. Pound the meat as for frying, place on a broiler and broil over a clear fire, turning over when one side is done. When done, place on a hot platter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dot bits of butter over it and serve.

​If you do not have a regular broiler, you may “pan broil” the steak, although this does not give it the real broiled flavor. Allow the pan or skillet to become smoking hot, then rub over it a piece of fat trimmed from the steak, place the steak thereon, broil on both sides and before serving add salt, pepper and bits of butter.

Place the steak in a baking pan, having sprinkled salt and pepper over it. If it is not very fat, put a piece of butter on top and cover with grated bread crumbs. Pour a little hot water under it and bake about twenty minutes; longer, if you like it well done.

Cut up two pounds of steak into small pieces, place in a a saucepan with salt and pepper, add one or two sliced onions and hot water. Cover and simmer gently until the meat is tender. Cream two tablespoons of butter with two tablespoons of flour, add to the stew, mixing until smooth.

For this purpose round steak may be used. Trim well and pound. Place a tablespoon of lard in a skillet and when it is smoking hot, brown the steak in it on both sides over a hot fire, then cover the meat with boiling water, add salt and a large onion sliced. Cover and simmer over a slow fire. If the liquor evaporates, add as much boiling water as you wish to have sauce. There should be a cup of liquor to a pound and a half of meat. To this liquor add a cup of good sour cream thickened with a little flour. Stir constantly while pouring this in, so the gravy be smooth. Then add a tablespoon of catsup and more ​salt or a little vinegar, if it needs either. Cut the meat into small pieces, place in the hot gravy and serve.

Grind in a meat grinder or chop fine two pounds of good beef. The markets in the cities have on hand ground meat, but it is hardly ever prepared from really nice meat and it is much better to buy a good piece and do this yourself. You may add a little of the suet and one onion. Salt and pepper and work thoroughly with your hands, make small cakes, cover with flour and fry in hot lard and butter, half of each.

Cut into small squares two pounds of meat from the shoulder. Fry one large minced onion in two tablespoons of butter until golden brown, add the meat, salt, four whole cloves, eight whole allspice, a slice of lemon, a bay leaf, two tablespoons of vinegar, one tablespoon of sugar and allow it to stew. When the meat is tender, dust with a tablespoon of flour and if quite dry, add a little hot water, two or three tablespoons of catsup and a pinch of paprika. Allow this to stew a while longer, then serve.

Cut beef, mutton and pork into small squares. Fry one large minced onion with bacon, adding to it a pinch of caraway seed and pepper. Place the beef in this and stew a while, stirring occasionally; then add the mutton and later the pork, dust with flour, add beef soup or hot water, salt, paprika, several whole allspice and, if yon wish, a little wine. Stew until the meat is tender. You may stew potatoes with the meat. Two or three pounds of meat is sufficient for six people.

Cut three pounds of rump into squares. Peel six potatoes and slice, and mince two onions. Place a layer of meat in a deep kettle, then a layer of potatoes, sprinkle with onion, salt and pepper and bits of butter, repeat until all is used. The last layer should be potatoes. Dot bits of butter over the top, pour half a cup of water over it, cover and stew in the oven two hours.

Wash a piece of rump, salt and pound thoroughly, interlard with bacon and place in a skillet, in which you have browned minced onion in butter. Add a few cloves and let it stew. Cut rye bread into dice, add to the meat, baste with soup and if you wish, add a wineglass of white wine. When done arrange the meat in slices and pour the strained gravy over it.

Roll bacon strips in ground cloves, pepper and salt, then interlard pounded beef well with it, place in hot lard with parsley, onion, carrot and a few bay leaves. When the meat begins to brown, turn, add pepper, ground cloves, ground allspice, and a little wine. Cover and stew three hours over a slow fire. When the meat is done, place it on a platter, pour the liquor over it, surround with stewed sliced carrots or sliced lemons and serve.

Boil a beef shank six hours, then take out the bones and fat. Cut the meat and tendons into pieces. When the liquor in which it has boiled is cool, skim off the grease and add enough to the meat to form a thick mush. Add salt, pepper, mace, allspice and boil ​fifteen minutes, stirring constantly. Pour into a dish and when entirely cold, cut in thick slices.

Wash the meat thoroughly and, if very salty, place in cold water, boil ten minutes, pour the water off and add fresh boiling water. If the meat is not salty, set it to boil in hot water. Skim the foam and allow half an hour for every pound. If you intend to serve the corned beef cold, let it cool in the liquor, then put it on a clean board and place weights on top, to press it down.

Wash in hot water three pounds of corned beef, place it in a kettle, cover with cold water, and when it boils, skim the foam, then cover and simmer gently. When it has been boiling an hour and a half, add a head of cabbage, which you have prepared thus: Cut the head in quarters, take out the stalk, soak the cabbage fifteen minutes in cold water, then put it with the corned beef and add four or five peeled turnips. Fifteen minutes later add four or five peeled potatoes and boil until tender. Serve the meat on a platter, surrounded by the boiled vegetables.

Dissolve a tablespoon of saltpeter in a gallon of water and boil together for fifteen minutes, then add a pound and a half of salt and allow the mixture to cool. Pour this over the beef and it will keep fresh all summer. Pork may be corned this way also, but more salt must be used.

For 200 pounds of meat take six or seven pounds of salt and one box of ground assorted spices. Two heads of garlic, mashed to a paste with salt, may also be added. Mix all together and rub over the meat. The meat is then packed well into a jar or keg, so that there are no crevices between the pieces. Place a board and weight on top.

Boil the meat just enough so that it will not be raw, then cut out the bones. For the brine boil equal amounts of water and vinegar with ground assorted spices. The meat must cool thoroughly. The next day cut it up into two or three pound pieces, pack in jars or kegs, pour the brine over it and it will keep a long time.

Tear the thinly chipped beef into pieces and soak in cold water two or three minutes. Melt a tablespoon of butter. When hot, add the beef, squeezed dry. Let it sizzle five minutes, turning often, so that it will not burn. Add a tablespoon of flour. Mix well. When brown, add three-fourths of a cup of milk or cream. Simmer a while, then add a beaten egg and pepper and serve.

Cut up two or three beef ribs into pieces about four inches long, then interlard the meat with bacon, and sprinkle it with salt, pepper and minced parsley. Heat butter in a skillet, place the ribs in it and brown on both sides, then cover the skillet and place it in the oven. When the ribs are done, arrange them on a dish, pour over them the strained liquor, from which you have skimmed all the fat, and garnish with fried potatoes.

Three pounds of finely minced or ground beef, a fourth of a pound of finely minced bacon, three heaping tablespoons of grated bread crumbs soaked in milk, three beaten eggs. Mix together thoroughly, add salt, pepper and sage. Grease a baking pan with butter, form a loaf of the meat, sprinkle grated bread crumbs on top and bake two and a half or three hours, basting occasionally with melted butter. This may be served hot or cold.

The best meat for hash is beef, although pork or veal may also be used, or all three together. The meat should be ground or minced fine. Chop separately cold boiled potatoes, using about half the amount of potatoes as meat. Place in a skillet two tablespoons of butter and fry one minced onion in it until golden brown. Then add the meat and potatoes, two tablespoons of hot water, salt and pepper, and stew over a hot fire fifteen minutes, stirring constantly.

Mince cold beef. Peel and grate six large raw potatoes, add two or three eggs, a minced onion, two tablespoons of flour, salt and pepper to taste. Mix together and bake in a greased pan.

Soak beef kidneys in cold water one hour. Then slice them thin, heat a piece of butter in a saucepan with a dash of caraway seed, pepper, one minced onion, or a clove of garlic mashed to a paste with a little salt. Place the kidneys in this and stew them. When nearly done, add salt, a tablespoon of flour, stir, add several ​tablespoons of good beef soup, stew a while longer and serve.

Soak beef kidneys one hour in cold water, then cut in slices, cover with cold water and boil. Skim the foam that arises, when clear add salt, two or three tablespoons of vinegar, a piece of lemon rind, a bay leaf, six whole allspice, four whole cloves, a sliced onion and a tablespoon of butter. Cover and simmer. When tender, add a cup of good sour cream thickened with a tablespoon of flour. Let the kidneys stew in this a while and before serving add one beaten yolk.

Boil the udder in salted water until it is tender, which will take about four hours. When it is done, take it out and slice thin. Beat two eggs, adding salt and pepper. Dip the sliced udder in flour, then in the eggs, then in grated bread crumbs and fry to a golden brown in rendered butter. You can prepare tripe or tongue in the same way.

Cut up two pounds of tripe which has been boiled until tender, place in a kettle and pour over two cups of water and half a cup of vinegar, add one minced onion, a few whole allspice, four cloves and a clove of garlic mashed to a paste with salt. Allow this to boil a while. Blend two tablespoons of butter with one tablespoon of sugar and one of flour, until a rich brown. Add this to the tripe with a pinch of pepper and a pinch of marjoram, boil a minute or two and serve.

Wash and boil a beef tongue half an hour, if large, one hour. Peel, cool and trim. Place minced bacon in a kettle, several pieces of veal, two sliced carrots, four sliced onions, a pinch of thyme and cloves, then add the tongue. Cover with beef soup and stew until the tongue is tender, which will take three or four hours. Add soup from time to time and also the juice of one lemon. When the tongue is tender, take it out, cut it lengthwise, beginning from the larger end, but do not cut through, leave it joined together at the smaller end. Spread out the severed ends and pour over the tongue the gravy strained through a sieve.

Blend butter or fresh suet with a tablespoon of sugar, until a dark brown. Add a wineglass of wine, a little vinegar, and enough beef soup to form a rather thick gravy. Then add twelve whole peppers, five allspice, five cloves, a bay leaf, lemon rind, salt and simmer fifteen minutes. Strain, add a handful of raisins and two ounces of sliced blanched almonds. If the gravy is too thick, add beef soup. Salt to taste and stew a while longer. Peel and trim the boiled tongue, cut in rather thick slices, place in a dish and pour the gravy over it.

Boil a tongue until tender. Peel, cut lengthwise and sprinkle with capers. You may serve with this caper or anchovy sauce, or grated horseradish.