Jewish Smoked Beef

Instructions

1. Use smoked beef (Acton believes the cut is the thick flank, from the depth of fat on it). Cook it as you would any other smoked meat, allowing more time than for fresh.
2. Drop it into boiling water and let it boil quickly for ten minutes.
3. Take off the scum should any appear, then add cold water sufficient to reduce it to mere scalding heat.
4. Bring it again gently to a boil, and simmer it until the lean appears quite tender when probed with a sharp skewer.
5. Time and quantity: beef, 6 lbs.: 3 hours or more.
6. Lift it onto a drainer and serve it hot or cold, garnished in either case with vegetables or otherwise at pleasure.
7. To use it as a store: an inch or two of the lean part, quite cleared from the smoked edges and divided into dice, will flavour well a tureen of gravy or a pint of soup. Even beef that has already been boiled will greatly improve the flavour of a simple broth or consomme. Kept in a cool larder it retains its flavour unimpaired for a very long time after it is cut or cooked.