Stewed Rump of Beef

The Book of Household Management · Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary) · 1861
Source
The Book of Household Management
Yield
8.0 – 10.0 persons
Status
success · extracted 13 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (26)
for seasoning meat
optional enrichment
for stock/gravy base (optional)
for richer, savoury method (optional)
Instructions (24)
  1. Cut out the bone from the rump of beef.
  2. Sprinkle the meat with a little cayenne pepper (use sparingly).
  3. Bind and tie the meat firmly up with tape.
  4. Put the meat into a stewpan with sufficient stock to cover it.
  5. Add vinegar, ketchup, herbs, onions, cloves, and seasoning in the stated proportions.
  6. Simmer very gently for 4 to 5 hours, or until the meat is perfectly tender (test by piercing with a thin skewer).
  7. When done, remove the tape and lay the meat into a deep dish.
  8. Keep the dish hot.
  9. Strain and skim the gravy.
  10. Thicken the gravy with butter and flour.
  11. Add a glass of port wine and any other flavoring to make the gravy rich and palatable.
  12. Let the gravy boil up.
  13. Pour the gravy over the meat.
  14. Serve.
Optional Enrichments
  1. Garnish with forcemeat balls.
  2. Fill the space whence the bone was taken with a good forcemeat.
  3. Boil sliced carrots, turnips, and onions with the meat.
  4. For a glazed finish (if expense is not an object), glaze the meat.
  5. Note: Glazing is not necessary if a good gravy is poured around and over the meat.
Optional Stock/Gravy Base
  1. To make stock or gravy, boil the bone and trimmings with water.
  2. Add carrots, onions, turnips, and a bunch of sweet herbs to the stock.
Optional Richer Method
  1. For a richer and more savoury dish, half-roast the rump.
  2. After half-roasting, stew the rump in strong stock and a little Madeira.
  3. Note: This method is expensive and not significantly better than the plainer method.
Original Text
STEWED RUMP OF BEEF. 670. INGREDIENTS.—1/2 rump of beef, sufficient stock to cover it (No. 105), 4 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, 2 tablespoonfuls of ketchup, 1 large bunch of savoury herbs, 2 onions, 12 cloves, pepper and salt to taste, thickening of butter and flour, 1 glass of port wine. Mode.—Cut out the bone, sprinkle the meat with a little cayenne (this must be sparingly used), and bind and tie it firmly up with tape; put it into a stewpan with sufficient stock to cover it, and add vinegar, ketchup, herbs, onions, cloves, and seasoning in the above proportion, and simmer very gently for 4 or 5 hours, or until the meat is perfectly tender, which may be ascertained by piercing it with a thin skewer. When done, remove the tape, lay it into a deep dish, which keep hot; strain and skim the gravy, thicken it with butter and flour, add a glass of port wine and any flavouring to make the gravy rich and palatable; let it boil up, pour over the meat, and serve. This dish may be very much enriched by garnishing with forcemeat balls, or filling up the space whence the bone is taken with a good forcemeat; sliced carrots, turnips, and onions boiled with the meat, are also a great improvement, and, where expense is not objected to, it may be glazed. This, however, is not necessary where a good gravy is poured round and over the meat. Time.—1/2 rump stewed gently from 4 to 5 hours. Average cost, 10d. per lb. Sufficient for 8 or 10 persons. Seasonable at any time. Note.—A stock or gravy in which to boil the meat, may be made of the bone and trimmings, by boiling them with water, and adding carrots, onions, turnips, and a bunch of sweet herbs. To make this dish richer and more savoury, half-roast the rump, and afterwards stew it in strong stock and a little Madeira. This is an expensive method, and is not, after all, much better than a plainer-dressed joint. THE BARON OF BEEF.—This noble joint, which consisted of two sirloins not cut asunder, was a favourite dish of our ancestors. It is rarely seen nowadays; indeed, it seems out of place on a modern table, as it requires the grim boar's head and Christmas pie as supporters. Sir Walter Scott has described a feast at which the baron of beef would have appeared to great advantage. We will quote a few lines to remind us of those days when "England was merry England," and when hospitality was thought to be the highest virtue.       "The fire, with well-dried logs supplied,       Went roaring up the chimney wide;       The huge hall-table's oaken face,       Scrubb'd till it shone, the day to grace,       Bore then, upon its massive board,       No mark to part the squire and lord.       Then was brought in the lusty brawn,       By old blue-coated serving-man;       Then the grim boar's head frown'd on high,       Crested with bays and rosemary.       Well can the green-garb'd ranger tell       How, when, and where the monster fell;       What dogs before his death he tore,       And all the baiting of the boar;       While round the merry wassel bowl,       Garnish'd with ribbons, blithe did trowl.       There the huge sirloin reek'd; hard by       Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas pie;       Nor fail'd old Scotland to produce,       At such high tide, her savoury goose." When a lord's son came of age, in the olden time, the baron of beef was too small a joint, by many degrees, to satisfy the retainers who would flock to the hall; a whole ox was therefore generally roasted over a fire built up of huge logs. We may here mention, that an ox was roasted entire on the frozen Thames, in the early part of the present century.
Notes
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