SALT BEEF.—The principles laid down for the cooking of a ham should be followed in boiling salt beef. The more slowly this is done the better. In this way you can buy a nice piece of brisket at sevenpence or eightpence a pound, and turn it out cold, pressed as tender and as well flavoured as the pressed beef for which they charge you eighteenpence a pound at the Stores, and two shillings at the more pretentious provisioner's. Select a good piece, say five pounds, and not too fat. Put it into cold water; bring slowly to the boil, skimming off all scum. When clear, let it boil, putting in, ready cut up, six ounces each of onions, carrots, and turnips, one of celery, and a muslin bag containing a clove of garlic (not cut), twelve peppercorns, a bag of cinnamon, a dessertspoonful of mixed dried herbs, and the rind of a lemon. Simmer now for at least four hours, then take out the meat, remove the bones immediately, and wrap the joint securely in a clean napkin. Lay this upon a baking-sheet or flat dish, and put another on the to of it with weights sufficient to press it firmly. Leave it thus during the night. The next morning take off the weights, remove the cloth, trim the joint into a neat rectangular shape, with a little diluted glaze and a brush varnish it lightly over. When this has set a second may be laid on, but avoid having this too thick. Nothing looks more clumsy than glazing overdone, in thick, irregular smearings.
For any special occasion it would, of course, improve the beef if it were simmered for an extra hour in marsala, like the ham.