Hamburg Steak, Beef Stew and Lobster Curry

From The American Pure Food Cook Book & Household Economist 1898.

Two turf meals and a surf entree...

HAMBURG STEAK. This is a good way to cook Hamburg steak: chop fine one pound of round steak, add two small onions, chopped fine, and pepper and salt to taste. Flour your hands, take two tablespoonfuls of the mixture and make into small, flat cakes. Have a large lump of butter, very hot, in your frying-pan, drop in the cakes and fry brown on either side. Some people make a gravy by adding a couple teaspoonfuls of flour to the butter, very hot, in your frying-pan, drop in the cakes and fry brown on either side. Some people make a gravy by adding a couple of teaspoonfuls of flour to the butter in the pan, stirring in a half a pinto of cold water, with salt and pepper, and letting it boil up.

STEWED BEEF. One tablespoonful of butter, two sliced onions, twelve whole cloves, allspice, one-half teaspoonful of salt, one-fourth teaspoonful of black pepper, one pint of cold water, two or three pounds of tender beef, a little flour, a few sprigs of sweet basil. In a stew-pan place a large tablespoonful of butter, in which fry until quite brown two sliced onions, adding, while cooking, twelve whole cloves; ditto allspice; one-half teaspoonful of salt, and half that quantity of black pepper; take from the fire, one pint of cold water, wherein lay two three pounds of tender lean beef cut in small, thick pieces; cover closely, and let all stew gently two hours, adding, just before serving, a little flour thickening. A few sprigs of sweet basil is an improvement.

CURRIED LOBSTER. Lobster, cream, rice. Take the flesh of a lobster (or a tin of lobster does very well for this dish) make curry gravy with plenty of cream; pour into a saucepan with the lobster, warm it just to boiling point; serve with rice round.

Irish Stew

From The American Pure Food Cook Book & Household Economist 1898.

Just in time for St. Pat's...

IRISH STEW. Cut three pounds of the neck of beef into small pieces, put in a saucepan and cover with a half a gallon of boiling water, add a teaspoonful of salt, two sliced onions, and three or four peppercorns, and simmer gently for three hours. Pare and quarter half a dozen potatoes, add to the meat, and cook half an hour longer; thicken with the beaten yolk of an egg and a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour.

Beef Omelet

From The American Pure Food Cook Book & Household Economist 1898.


BEEF OMELET. Three pounds of beefsteak, three-fourths of suet, salt and pepper, a little sage, eggs, and six Boston crackers. Chop up fine the beef steak and the suet; add the seasonings of salt, pepper, and a little sage, three eggs, and six Boston crackers rolled; make into a roll and paste.

Bubble and Squeak

From The American Pure Food Cook Book & Household Economist 1898.

The classic...

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK. A few thin slices of cold boiled beef, a little butter, small cabbage, one sliced onion, pepper and salt to taste. Fry the beef gently in the butter, place on a flat dish, and cover with fried greens. Savoys may be used. Boil until tender, press in a colander, mince, and then put in frying pan with butter and sliced onion, and a little salt and pepper.

Corned Beef

From The American Pure Food Cook Book & Household Economist 1898.

Just in time for St. Pat's...

CORNED BEEF. Four gallons of fresh water, one-half pound of coarse brown sugar, two ounces of saltpeter, seven pounds of common salt. Put four gallons of fresh water, one-half pound of coarse brown sugar, two ounces of saltpeter, seven pounds of common salt into a boiler, remove the scum as it rises, and, when well boiled, leave it to get cold. Put the meat in the pickle, lay a cloth over it, and press the meat down with bricks or any weight.

Just a note...you might find trouble trying to purchase saltpeter in our post-911 world as it is also a main ingredient used in some explosives...

Curried Beef

From The American Pure Food Cook Book & Household Economist 1898.

CURRIED BEEF. Beef, two ounces butter, tow onions, a tablespoonful of curry-powder, one-fourth pint milk, lemon juice. Slice the onions, and fry in butter a light brown mix well with the curry-powder adding the beef, cut into small pieces about an inch square, pour in milk, and allow to simmer for thirty minutes, stirring frequently; when done, add lemon juice. It greatly improves the dish to build a wall of mashed potatoes or boiled rice around it.

Beefsteak Pie

From The American Pure Food Cook Book & Household Economist 1898.

BEEFSTEAK PIE. Forcemeat, two ounces of fat bacon, two ounces of bread-crumbs, parsley, thyme, a small onion, mushrooms, seasoning for forcemeat, slat, pepper, and nutmeg, two eggs, a tneder rump-steak, shallot, gravy. Make some forcemeat with two ounces of bread-crums, a little chopped parsley, thyme, a small onion, and some mushrooms; add seasoning of salt, pepper, and nutmeg, pound in a mortar, moistening with the yolks of two eggs. Take a tender rump-steak or the undercut of a sirloin of beef, cut it in thin slices. Season with salt, pepper, and a little shallot. Roll each slice like a sausage with some forcemeat inside, border a pie dish, put in the beef and forcemeat, fill it up with good gravy, flavored with Harvey sauce . Cover with puff-paste; bake in a moderate oven. Make a hole in the top; and add some reduced gravy.

Grenadins of Beef

From The American Pure Food Cook Book & Household Economist 1898.

GRENADINS OF BEEF. Rump-steak, lard, bacon fat, rich stock of gravy, onions, turnips, butter, flour, milk, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Cut some rump-steak in slices a little more than half an inch thick, trim them all to the same size in the shape of cutlets, and lard them quickly on one side with fine lardoons (the piece of salt pork or bacon used in larding) of bacon fat. Lay them out, the larded side uppermost, into a flat pan, and put into it as much highly flavored rich stock or gravy as will come up to the grenadins without covering them. Cover the pan and place it in the oven to braize gently for an hour. Then remove the cover, baste the grenadins with the gravy, and let them remain uncovered in the oven till the larding has taken color; they are ready. Take equal quantities of carrots and turnips cut into the shape of olives. Boil all these vegetables in salted water, then melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, add a tablespoonful of flour, stir in sufficient milk to make a sauce, add pepper, slat, and a little grated nutmeg. Put all the vegetables into this sauce, of which there should be just enough to hold them together; toss them gently in it till quite hot. Dress them in the middle of the dish, round them dispose the grenadins in a circle, and, having removed the superfluous fat from their gravy, put this round the grenadins, and serve.

Fillets of Beef a la Chateaubriand with Potatoes Sautees au Berre

From The American Pure Food Cook Book & Household Economist 1898.

FILLETS OF BEEF A LA CHATEAUBRIAND. A piece of sirloin of beef, pepper, salt, oil. A piece of undercut of the sirloin of beef; trim off fat neatly, and the skin next to it; cut it across the grain into slices one and one-half inches thick, sprinkle them with pepper, dip them in oil, and broil over a clear fire, sprinkle with salt, and serve very hot in a dish garnished with potatoes sautees au berre (see recipe below).

POTATOES SAUTEES AU BERRE. Cut with a vegetable cutter, into small balls about the size of a marble; put them in a stew-pan with plenty of butter and a good sprinkling of salt; keep the saucepan covered, and shake it occasionally until they are quite done, which will be in about an hour.

Fillets of Beef with Olives

From The American Pure Food Cook Book & Household Economist 1898.

FILLETS OF BEEF WITH OLIVES. A piece of rump-steak, pepper, salt, olives, onions, flour, stock, sauce. Cut a piece of rump-steak into slices three eighths of an inch thick, and trim them into shape. Melt plenty of butter in a baking-tin, lay the fillets of beef in this, and let them stand in a warm place for an hour or so; then sprinkle them with pepper and salt, and fry them in some very hot butter, turning them to let both sides color. Stone a quantity of olives (pitted) and parboil them. Fry some onions a brown color in butter, add a little flour, and, when that is colored, as much stock as you want, sauce, pepper, salt and spices to taste. Let the sauce boil, then strain it, add the olives, and serve when quite hot, with the fillets in a circle round them.