Hunter's Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the beef
Let the beef hang for 2 or 3 days, and remove the bone.
Pound spices, salt, etc. in the above proportion, and reduce them to the finest powder.
Put the beef into a pan, rub all the ingredients well into it, and turn and rub it every day for rather more than a fortnight.
Bake and serve
When it has been sufficiently long in pickle, wash the meat, bind it up securely with tape, and put it into a pan with 1/2 pint of water at the bottom.
Mince some suet, cover the top of the meat with it, and over the pan put a common crust of flour and water.
Bake for 6 hours.
When cold, remove the paste.
Save the gravy that flows from it, as it adds greatly to the flavour of hashes, stews, etc.
The beef may be glazed and garnished with meat jelly.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Beef (in the method)
- Forms the main body of the dish, which turns firm and sliceable after curing and slow baking.
- Suet (in the method)
- Covers the meat during baking, adding moisture and richness to the surface and the gravy.
- Flour and water crust
- Forms a sealed paste over the pan that traps steam and moisture around the meat while it bakes.
The step that matters
Rubbing the cure in daily for over a fortnight. The salt and spices must penetrate the meat evenly; skipping turns or stopping early leaves uneven seasoning and a meat that is not properly preserved.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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