This section is from the book "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book", by Fannie Merritt Farmer. Also available from Amazon: Original 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book.
Wipe a three-pound fillet, trim, and remove fat. Put one-half pound butter in hot frying-pan and when melted add fillet, and turn frequently until the entire surface is seared and well browned; then turn occasionally until done, the time required being about thirty minutes. Remove to serving dish and garnish with one cup each cooked peas and carrots cut in fancy shapes, both well seasoned, one-half cup raisins seeded and cooked in boiling water until soft, and the caps from one-half pound fresh mushrooms sauted in butter five minutes. Serve with
Brown Mushroom Sauce. Pour off one-fourth cup fat from frying-pan, add five tablespoons flour, and stir until well browned; then add one cup Brown Soup Stock, one-third cup mushroom liquor, and the caps from one-half pound mushrooms cut in slices and sauted in butter three minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and just before serving add gradually, while stirring constantly, the butter remaining in frying-pan.
To obtain mushroom liquor, scrape stems of mushrooms, break in pieces, cover with cold water, and cook slowly until liquid is reduced to one-third cup.
3 lbs. beef from lower part of round or face of rump 2 thin slices fat salt pork 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
1/4 cup each, cut in dice
Salt and pepper
Try out pork and remove scraps. Wipe meat, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and brown entire surface in pork fat. When turning meat, avoid piercing with fork or skewer, which allows the inner juices to escape. Place on trivet in deep granite pan or in earthen pudding-dish, and surround with vegetables, peppercorns, and three cups boiling water; cover closely, and bake four hours in very slow oven, basting every half-hour, and turning after second hour. Throughout the cooking, the liquid should be kept below the boiling-point. Serve with Horseradish Sauce, or with sauce made from liquor in pan.
Insert twelve large lardoons in a four-pound piece of beef cut from the round. Make incisions for lardoons by running through the meat a large skewer. Season with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and brown the entire surface in pork fat. Put on a trivet in kettle, surround with one-third cup each carrot, turnip, celery, and onion cut in dice, sprig of parsley, bit of bay leaf, and water to half cover meat. Cover closely, and cook slowly four hours, keeping liquor below the boiling-point. Remove to hot platter. Strain liquor, thicken and season to serve as a gravy. When beef is similarly prepared (with exception of lardoons and vegetables), and cooked in smaller amount of water, it is called Smothered Beef, or Pot Roast. A bean-pot (covered with a piece of buttered paper, tied firmly down) is the best utensil to use for a Pot Roast.
Wipe, remove superfluous fat, and roll a flank of beef. Put in a kettle, cover with boiling water, and add one tablespoon salt, one-half teaspoon peppercorns, a bit of bay leaf, and a bone or two which may be at hand. Cook slowly until meat is in shreds; there should be but little liquor in kettle when meat is done. Arrange meat in a deep pan, pour over liquor, cover, and press with a heavy weight. Serve cold, thinly sliced.
 
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