Spiced Pressed Beef Recipe ingredients

To prepare this Spiced Pressed Beef Recipe, first take a shin bone and a pound or two of other good stewing piece, the lower round or rump will do. Have about 3 pounds of meat in all. Wash and wipe off the outside and trim away any poor pieces of fat or dried edges of the meat. Crack the bone as for soup. Cut in pieces that will pack closely in the kettle with the bone. Cover with cold water, and bring at once to a boil. Add salt and pepper, a finely chopped onion, and a tablespoonful of vinegar, and simmer slowly until the meat falls to pieces. The liquor should then be reduced to about one-half.

Take out the meat and pick into rather small pieces with a fork. Strain the liquor, add 1/2 teaspoonful each of ground cloves, allspice, and mace, a little mustard and cayenne, and, if liked, celery salt. Let this come to a boil and return the meat, stirring it well together with a fork. When it is thoroughly heated, turn out into an oval dish or mould, cover with a plate to press the meat well down, and put it away to cool. There should be liquor enough to make it quite moist, and when cold the liquor should be solid jelly.

Cooked in this way it can be served cold in thin slices for lunch or Sunday supper, either with or without tomato sauce or mayonnaise dressing; it is delicious in sandwiches, or it can be cut in half-inch slices, crumbed, and sauted in butter.

For a change from sliced meat, mould it in custard cups or any small moulds. Keep them on the ice until just ready to serve; dip the cups in hot water for a moment and turn the meat out on a platter, and garnish with sprigs of parsley alternated with crisp, white celery tops, with sprigs of parsley stuck between the moulds.

Or for a piece de resistance for the Sunday evening supper, garnish with sauted hardboiled egs.