Beef Spiced Beef

spiced beef

(from Godey's Ladies Magazine, edited by Sarah J. Hale, 1864.)

Ingredients:

ribs, round, brisket, or rump of beef​

1 oz. saltpetre​

1/2 lb. sugar​

1 oz. ground pepper​

1/2 oz. pounded mace​

cloves​

cayenne pepper​

salt​

shred suet​

Instructions:

​

This is an excellent dish for either lun-cheon or breakfast, and is generally eaten cold. It can be made from either the round, brisket, or rump of beef, but ribs are the most tender eating. Procure, therefore, from eight to ten pounds of the ribs of beef— those which have a good amount of fat upon them are the best — remove the bone, rub the meat well with one ounce of saltpetre pounded very finely, and three hours after this has been applied, rub on one-half pound of moist sugar; let the meat lay in this for two days, then take one ounce of ground pepper, one-half ounce of pounded mace, a few cloves likewise well pounded, and a teaspoonful of cayenne pepper. Mix all these ingredients well, and rub them well into the beef, particularly into the holes, adding occasionally a little salt. Roll up the meat as a round, and bind it with a strong fillet. Chop some shred suet very finely, and cover the beef with it, and bake it in a moderately heated oven from five to six hours. Whilst baking it may be placed either upon a meat tin, or in an earthen jar as nearly of its size as possible. In both cases there should be a cupful of gravy or water under the meat to prevent it from burning ; if a jar is used there should be a cover to it.​