Pot Roast

From The pure food cook book: the Good Housekeeping recipes [circa 1914]

JUST HOW TO COOK POT ROAST OF BEEF

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OT ROAST is one of the delicious meat dishes that can be made of the cheaper (not the cheapest) cuts of beef. Perhaps it is not fair to call pot roast a cheap dish, because the prices vary so widely in different localities, and the cuts vary so much."

"In the vicinity of Providence, R. I., for example, our correspondents report prices of 12 to 18 cents a pound; in Philadelphia, 14 to 20 cents, in New York City, 18 to 22 cents. In Boston and vicinity 20 to 25 cents."

"In Providence they sell for pot roast the rump (14 to 16 cents), shoulder (12 to 14 cents), and bottom round (16 to 18 cents), in Philadelphia and vicinity, the chuck roast next to ribs (14 cents), shoulder cut (16 to 18 cents), and the ribs (18 to 20 cents). In New York City and the West, prices are higher, and their range is greater. The cuts are bottom round, top sirloin (which is expensive, as a rule), top round and brisket, 16 to 22 cents."

"The " eye " of the beef is considered the epicurean cut for pot roast. This is a triangular piece of meat taken from the hind-quarter between the top and bottom round after the bone has been removed. In the West, pot roast is often made by cutting vertically through the bottom and top round (inside round) as is done in the East. This top round or part on the inside of the hind-quarter is exceptionally good for pot roast."

"In different localities the names of beef cuts are entirely different. In some places, for example, the flank is cut so as to include more of the loin, in which case the upper portion is often called the flank steak. Sometimes the rump steak, the inside round, is called the rump plate, or the rattle."

"Often the cross-ribs and brisket are included together under the name of cross-ribs; the fore part of the cross-ribs is sometimes called the shoulder clod, and the leg underneath the second round is called the hind shoulder. Often, too, the socket and rump together are called simply the rump. Consequently one must know from what part of the beef the meat should be cut and how it looks. This knowledge must be acquired in actual marketing."

"The requirements for a successful pot roast are fresh meat, slow cooking—about one hour per pound unless the top sirloin or tenderer parts are employed—and adequate seasoning. Buy from four to six pounds of beef for any ordinary meal to be served for from three to five people. Remove the meat at once from its wrappings to avoid the taste of paper. Before cooking moisten a piece of cheesecloth and rub the beef all over carefully. Never soak in water as this wastes good protein material. Remove any discolored fat."

Pot Roast:
"Brown two onions, which have been thinly sliced, in two tablespoonfuls of butter, in a pot with a cover; then add the meat and let it steam in the covered pot with just enough water to keep the meat from burning. Let it cook for three hours or more if necessary. Place on a dish and add to it a sauce made of one can of tomatoes, one tablespoonful of flour, and two chopped boiled carrots. Season with a dash of paprika and salt to taste."

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While i do use the "eye round" cut of beef for my pot roast, my recipe is a slight variation on the traditional method. i like carrots, but i don't like cooked carrots so i do not include them in my pot roast. Instead i use red potatos seasoned with sea salt, parsley and rosemary.

i also found that if the meat is seasoned [worcestershire sauce, tarragon and black pepper] and covered with peppers and onions prior to cooking, the same moist and tender consistency can be achieved [400 degree oven] with a cooking time of 90 minutes vs several hours.

Text Credit: Google Books

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Strawberry Shortcake

'Strawberry Shortcake/Cream On Top/Tell Me The Name/Of Your Sweetheart'

Aside from being part of a jump-rope rhyme i remember strawberry shortcake as being a special dessert and late-night snack my sibs and i would share. We didn't make the shortcake part from scratch and i have now been edified that we were in fact eating sponge cake. The late night chats were always fun, but as good as the desserts were, i can't help but think scratch ones would have been even better.

"The most famous dessert made with shortcake is strawberry shortcake. Sliced strawberries are mixed with sugar and allowed to sit an hour or so, until the strawberries have surrendered a great deal of their juices. The shortcakes are split and the bottoms are covered with a layer of strawberries, juice, and whipped cream, typically flavored with sugar and vanilla."

"The top is replaced, and more strawberries and whipped cream are added onto the top. Some convenience versions of shortcake are not made with a "shortcake" (i.e. biscuit) at all, but a base of sponge cake or sometimes a corn muffin. Japanese-style strawberry shortcakes use a sponge cake base, and are a favorite Christmas or birthday cake in Japan."

"Though today's shortcakes are usually of the biscuit or sponge-cake variety, earlier American recipes called for pie crust in rounds or broken-up pieces, which was a variety still being enjoyed in the 20th century, particularly in the South."

"Though strawberry is the most widely known shortcake dessert, peach shortcake, blueberry shortcake, and other similar desserts are made along similar lines. It is also common to see recipes where the shortcake itself is flavored; coconut is a common addition. The term "shortcake" often refers to shortbread in the UK."

Recipe For Strawberry Shortcake: 2 1/2 Cups Of Flour 1/2 Cup Cornstarch 6 Teaspoonfuls Baking Powder 1 Teaspoonful Salt

1/2 Cup Shortening [scant] 1 1/2 Cups Of Milk [about] 2 Baskets Strawberries 2 Cups Sugar

Work the shortening into the dry ingredients, and mix to a soft dough with the milk. Spread the dough into two buttered layer-cake pans. Bake in a quick oven. Spread with butter. Put the layers together with sugared berries and whipped cream between and above.

Text Credits: Wikipedia American cookery, Volume 24
Image Credit: By stu_spivack ([1]) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Eggs Benedict

Eggs Benedict is a dish that consists of two halves of an English muffin, topped with ham or bacon, poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce.

How To Poach An Egg: The egg is cracked into a bowl of any size, and then gently slid into a pan of simmering water and cooked until the egg white has mostly solidified, but the yolk remains soft. It is quite common for a small pat of butter or margarine to be added to the container for the egg, to prevent the egg sticking to its container. The 'perfect' poached egg has a runny yolk, with a hardening crust and no raw white remaining.

Fresh eggs will yield the best results. Broken into simmering water, the white will cling to the yolk, resulting in cooked albumen and runny yolk. To prevent dispersion of the white of the egg, a small amount of vinegar may be added to the boiling water. Stirring the water vigorously to create a vortex may reduce dispersion. Special pans, with several small cups, allow a number of eggs to be poached at the same time. Other methods of producing poached eggs, such as using cling film to keep the egg perfectly formed have been documented.

If the eggs are at room temperature, the cooking time is 2 mins 30s to 2 mins 40s. If the eggs are taken from a refrigerator, then a longer time of about 3mins is required. Dipping the eggs into cold water for a few seconds immediately after taking them out of the boiling water helps prevent over-cooking.

Hollandaise Sauce: It is so named because it was believed to have mimicked a Dutch sauce for the state visit to France of the King of the Netherlands.

Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion of egg yolk and butter, usually seasoned with lemon juice. In appearance it is light yellow and opaque, smooth and creamy. Hollandaise is considered to require some skill and knowledge to prepare and hold. Properly made, it will be smooth and creamy with no hint of separation. The flavor will be rich and buttery, with a mild tang from the lemon juice yet not so strong as to overpower mildly-flavored foods. It is best prepared and served warm, but not hot.

There are multiple methods for preparing a Hollandaise sauce. All methods require near-constant agitation, usually executed with a wire whisk. First the yolk and lemon juice (or water) should be whisked off heat until light and frothy, then while whisking vigorously over warm water, becoming pale yellow and expanding two or three times in volume.

Then removed from heat, warm (not hot) butter (or clarified butter) is added slowly to the sauce in dribbles. The sauce can be served promptly, at room temperature, or having being brought to room temperature after refrigeration. It freezes well, easier to thaw and reconstitute if frozen in portions.

Text Credit: Wikipedia Wikipedia
Image Credit: Belathee Photography [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL 1.3 (www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html)], via Wikimedia Commons