Baked Beef

Take a nice but not a fat piece of fresh beef. Wash it, rub it with salt, and place it on a trivet in a deep block tin or iron pan.

Pour a little water into the bottom, and put under and round the trivet a sufficient amount of peeled potatoes, either white or sweet ones.

Put the pan into a hot oven, and bake until thoroughly done, basting it frequently with its own gravy.

(Optional) Boil the potatoes, mash them with milk, and put them into the bottom of the pan about half an hour before the meat is done baking. Press down the mashed potatoes hard with the back of a spoon, score them in cross lines over the top, and let them brown under the meat, serving them up laid round it.

(Optional) Instead of potatoes, put a Yorkshire pudding in the bottom of the pan to be baked under the meat.

To make the Yorkshire pudding, stir gradually four tablespoonfuls of flour into a pint of milk, adding a teaspoon of salt.

Beat four eggs very lightly, and mix them gradually with the milk and flour, ensuring the batter is not lumpy.

Do not put the pudding under the meat at first, as if baked too long it will be hard and solid.

After the meat has baked until the pan is quite hot and well greased with the drippings, put in the batter, continuing to stir until the last moment.

If the pudding is spread over the pan as to be only an inch thick, it will require about two hours baking and need not be turned.

If it is thicker than an inch, after it is brown on the top, loosen it in the pan by inserting a knife beneath it, cut it across into four pieces, and turn them all so the other side may be equally done.

The pudding is lighter and better if laid so thin as not to require turning.

Transfer the beef to a hot dish, and serve the potatoes in another. Skim the gravy, and send it to the table in a boat.

When serving, lay the pieces of pudding round the beef, to be eaten with the meat.

Veal may be baked in this manner with potatoes or a pudding. Also fresh pork.