Spiced Beef.—Choose a nice piece of beef about 10lb. or 12lb. in weight, from the round, rump, or thick flank as you please, and rub well into it ½lb. of coarse brown sugar (the kind known as “foot” sugar is best for this purpose, but is not always procurable), and let it stand for two days. Mean-while pound together finely a large teaspoonful of mace, the same of black pepper, a small dessert-spoonful of ground cloves, half a teaspoonful of cayenne, a small nutmeg grated, rather less than an ounce of saltpetre, and 2oz. of juniper berries. Mix this all with a little more sugar, and then rub it well into the beef, (after the latter has stood two days in the sugar), and again leave it for three days. At the end of these add ½lb. of fine salt to the pickle that will have formed, and rub it all again into the beef, turning and rubbing it with this pickle daily for twelve days. (Where possible it is well to get a man to do this rubbing, on account of the strength required.) It may now be hung up to dry like a tongue, or can be used at once, as convenient. To cook it, if it has been hung and dried (when it is best), wash but do not soak it, tie it neatly into shape with broad tape, and set it in a pan that will just hold it and its addenda comfortably. Pour to it one and a half pints of good beef stock, skimming this carefully as soon as it boils up, then add one small onion, two large carrots, and a good bunch of herbs, bring this all again just (and only just) to the boil, then draw it aside and allow it to simmer gently for four and a half hours. Now lift the meat into a deep earthen-ware pan, pour its own liquor over it, and leave it till well cooled; then set it between two dishes weighting these carefully and rather heavily, and leave it till perfectly cold, when it must be wiped all over with a moist warm cloth, and finally glazed with its own gravy, strained, reduced by rapid boiling, and stiffened with about ½oz. of best leaf gelatine to the half pint of gravy; or with aspic jelly. The latter is the commonest, the former the nicest method.