The Rocky Mountain Cook Book : For High Altitude Cooking. Caroline Trask Norton
to it one-half cup each of carrot, turnip, onion, cut in slices, and a sprig of parsley. Cover the pot tight and simmer slowly for four or five hours; add more water when necessary, having about a cup of the liquor when the meat is done. Place the meat on a hot platter, thicken the gravy a little with the vegetables, pour around it. This is very good cold.
BEEF STEW WITH DUMPLINGS.
The cheaper cuts of meat can be used for a stew. The aitch-bone, or two or three pounds from the shin, or flank, or upper part of chuck rib. Stew can be made from cooked meat, the flank from a roast or left-ocer pieces of fresh meat. Remove the meat from the bones, cut in two-inch pieces, season with flour, salt and pepper, brown all over with fat from the meat or drippings. Put in the stew pan, add one onion cut in thin slices, one good-sized turnip, two carrots. Add boiling water enough to cover. Cook slowly for two hours, then add six potatoes that have been pared, sliced thin and soaked in cold water for half an hour. Cook for five minutes, then add the dumplings, having the liquor come up even with the potatoes and the dumplings resting on top. Cover closely and cook for ten minutes. Put the meat in the center of the platter, the vegetables and dumplings around the outside. Thicken the gravy a little and pour around the vegetables. Season the gravy more if desired.
DUMPLINGS.
1 cup flour.
1/4 teaspoonful salt.
1 teaspoonful baking powder.
Mix with one-half cup of milk into a dough soft enough to handle. Pat out in small cakes or roll and cut with a small biscuit cutter. Cook for ten minutes in the boiling stew, being careful that the water does not boil on them, as that would make them soggy.
MEAT PIE.
Lay in a baking dish a few thin slices of cold meat, grating of onion, salt and pepper, a layer of thin-sliced potatoes. (Cold cooked potatoes can be used, cut in thicker slices.) Fill up the dish with these layers. Pour over it any cold gravy, tomato sauce, or soup stock. Cover the top with pastry, rolled a half inch thick. Bake in a hot oven for about one-half hour. Any kind of meat can be used in this way, and other vegetables used if desired.
WARMED-OVER BEEF.
Cut the beef in small, thin slices. Make a gravy of two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour; when browned a little, add a cup of stock or gravy and one teaspoonful of Worchestershire sauce and one tablespoonful of catsup. Season with salt and pepper. Add the meat. Simmer for fifteen minutes. Place on a hot platter, garnish with three-cornered pieces of toast or little ball potatoes.
ROLLED STUFFED FLANK.
Take the inside flank, wipe it clean and dry, remove the fat, spread it evenly with a bread stuffing, highly seasoned, about an inch thick. Roll it up and tie securely with a white twine. Cut into slices an onion, carrot and turnip. Place them in the pan, lay the meat on them and dredge with flour, salt and pepper. Add a bay leaf, sprig of parsley and the root or stalk of celery, one cup of water or stock. Cook for fifteen minutes in a very hot oven; then cover with another pan and cook slowly for four hours, basting frequently. It must have a long, slow cooking to be tender. When done, strain out the vegetables, make a gravy of the liquor and serve with the meat.
BOILED DINNER.
Select a piece of corn beef that is well streaked with fat. Wash it in cold water, put on to boil in cold water enough to cover. When it begins to boil, skim. Allow it to simmer slowly, until tender, about forty minutes to a pound. Scrape, wash and quarter the carrots, peel and quarter parsnips, peel and slice in inch slices the turnips, quarter the cabbage, peel the potatoes and cook whole. About one hour before the meat is done add the turnips, carrots and parsnips and a half hour before done add the potatoes. Tie the cabbage in a piece of cheese cloth and cook it in a separate kettle in some of the liquor from the corn beef. Cook one hour or until tender.
Cook the beets separately in boiling water. When done plunge them into cold water and rub off the skin. Serve hot or cold. Place the corn beef in the center of the platter and the carrots, turnips, parsnips and potatoes around. Serve cabbage and beets in separate dish.
PRESSED CORN BEEF.
Remove the beef from the bones, pick in rather small pieces, put layers of lean and fat in a round baking dish. Cover the top with a plate and press down with a brick or flat iron for several hours. Then slice thin. Serve with baked potatoes and pickles.
CORN BEEF HASH.
Half corn beef and half mixed vegetables. Chop all together until fine. Season with a very little salt and pepper; moisten with a little stock or gravy. Put one tablespoonful of drippings in the frying pan. When hot add the hash. When brown, cover the top with a plate; quickly turn the hash into it by turning the frying pan upside down. Put another tablespoonful of drippings in the pan and brown the hash on the other side. Remove to a hot platter, garnish with pickles cut lengthwise in half, or parsley.
VEGETABLE HASH.
Equal parts of all the left-over vegetables. Put into the frying pan a tablespoonful of drippings, add the vegetables and cook until heated through, stirring often. This is very nice served with the cold corn beef.
SPICED BEEF.
Select a piece from the middle cut of shin or the round. Wash the meat quickly and cut in four pieces. Cover with boiling water. After it has boiled for one-half hour, add the following seasonings, tied in cheese cloth: Six cloves, twelve peppercorns, one bay leaf, half teaspoonful sage, half teaspoonful thyme, three or four celery roots or stalks. Simmer slowly now until the meat falls apart, pack and press. (See corn beef.) When cold, serve in thin slices.
BROILED BEEFSTEAK.
Cut off the flank end to use in other ways, as that is toughened by broiling. Grease the broiler with a little fat from the meat. Broil over red-hot coals, turning at first every ten seconds (to sear the outside and keep the juices in). If liked rare, broil eight minutes; well done, twelve minutes. Select a steak one inch and a half or two inches thick. Serve on a hot platter, season with butter and salt, maitre d’hotel sauce or mushroom sauce.
SPANISH STEAK.
For this use round steak cut one and one-half or two inches thick; sear it on both sides by turning it in a hot pan, then season with salt, pepper, a bit of butter and about one-half cup of water or stock. Cook in a hot oven for one-half hour, then cover with slices of raw onions. Add a few more pieces of butter; cook another one-half hour, then add a layer of sliced tomato, cook for another one-half hour, then cover with grated cheese. When brown, serve with a gravy made from the liquor in the pan.
SWISS STEAK.
Select a slice of round steak cut about two inches thick. Pound into the steak on both sides as much flour as it will take up (one cup). Brown the meat on both sides in bacon or salt pork fat. Cover with boiling water and let simmer about two hours. Peel an onion for each person to be served. Let cook five minutes in boiling water. Drain and rinse in cold water and set cooking around the meat. Mushrooms may be added. Season with salt and pepper.
BROILED FILLET OF BEEF.
Cut the fillet in slices three-fourths an inch thick. Grease the broiler well. Broil over clear coals for six minutes, turning every ten seconds, at first. Place on rounds of toast the size of the slices. Season with salt, pepper and butter and garnish with peas or with mushroom sauce.
HAMBURG STEAK.
Use one pound from the round or the ends of steak. Put through a meat