This section is from the book "The Epicurean", by Charles Ranhofer. Also available from Amazon: The Epicurean, a Complete Treatise of Analytical and Practical Studies on the Culinary Art.
For mirotons take six ounces of either cold braised or cold boiled beef. Mince two ounces of onions, or one medium-sized onion, also a small shallot; fry them in butter with a whole clove of garlic and a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf. Dilute with a little white wine and some brown sauce (No. 414), boil for twenty minutes, then remove the bunch of herbs and garlic. Season and place the sliced beef in a stewpan; pour the prepared sauce over, and let simmer for fifteen minutes, then lay it on a dish and cover the meat with the sauce and sprinkle chopped parsley over.
Pare an aitchbone of beef, suppressing all the bones; roll lengthwise, tie and lay it in a long saucepan with melted fat pork; let it fry slowly for half an hour, turning it over frequently: season, then take the meat from the pan, spread on the bottom of this same saucepan a thick layer of minced vegetables and onions and replace the meat over, moisten with three or four gills of broth; let reduce very slowly and wet it again with as much white wine, then reduce to a glaze. Now moisten the meat to its height with broth, boil up the liquid, skimming well the fat from the surface and cover the saucepan; stand it in a slack oven and have the meat cook until well done which will take at least five hours. Put the meat on a baking dish to truss and pare; strain the Stock, suppress its fat and add broth to it should there not be sufficient and reduce it it there be too much. Return the meat to a narrower saucepan, pour the stock over and add a glassful of Madeira or Marsala wine; finish to cook in a slack oven basting it at times so that it assumes a glaze; it should be tender and finely colored.
When prepared to serve, drain the meat and cut it into welt formed transversal slices of even thickness, dress these on a foundation of rice fastened on a long dish and surround with a garnishing prepared beforehand and having it symmetrically arranged. At the end of the dish where the narrow slices of the beef begin fasten a small fried bread support and in it stick a skewer garnished with cut vegetables and a round truffle. The garnishing around the meat consists of eight small chartreuses of vegetables, a dozen ball-shaped croquettes and a dozen thick slices of cucumbers hollowed out and stuffed, each one to be decorated with a slice of truffle cut out with a vegetable cutter. Serve at the same time as the remove a sauce-boatful of the strained, skimmed and reduced stock in which the beef was conked. This dish is prepared to have served to the guests at a dinner party.

Fig. 305.
 
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