To Dry Beef for Summer Use

Ingredients

• beef
• salt
• bran
• water

Instructions

1. Choose the right pieces: the thin briskets, or that part of the plate which is farthest from the shoulder of the animal, and the round and rib pieces which are commonly used for roasting.
2. These should not be cut with long ribs, and the back-bones must be sawed off as close as possible so the piece will lay flat in the dish.
3. About the middle of February, select your beef from an animal well fatted with corn which, when killed, will weigh one hundred and fifty per quarter; larger oxen are always coarse.
4. Salt the pieces as directed and let them lie one fortnight.
5. Then put them in brine, where they must remain three weeks.
6. Take them out at the end of that time, wipe them quite dry, and rub them over with bran.
7. Hang them in a cool, dry and, if possible, dark place, so that the flies may not get to them. They must be suspended, and not allowed to touch any thing.
8. In the course of the summer it will be necessary to look them over occasionally, and after a long wet season to lay them in the sun a few hours.
9. Tongues may be dried in the same manner: make a little hole in the root, run a twine through it, and suspend it.
10. These dried meats must be put in a good quantity of water to soak, the night before they are to be used.
11. In boiling, it is absolutely necessary to have a large quantity of water, and to put the beef in while the water is cold. Boil steadily, skimming the pot, until the bones are ready to fall out; and, if a tongue, till the skin peels off with perfect ease. The skin must also be taken from the beef.
12. The author's remarks, as printed: the housekeeper who will buy good ox beef and follow these directions exactly may be assured of always having delicious beef on her table. Ancient prejudice has established a notion that meat killed in the decrease of the moon will draw up when cooked; the true cause of this shrinking may be found in the old age of the animal, or in its diseased state at the time of killing. The best age is from three to five years. Few persons are aware of the injury they sustain by eating the flesh of diseased animals. None but the Jewish butchers, who are paid exclusively for it, attend to this important circumstance. The best rule for judging that the author has been able to discover is the colour of the fat: when the fat of beef is a high shade of yellow, she rejects it; if the fat of veal, mutton, lamb or pork has the slightest tinge of yellow, she avoids it as diseased. The same rule holds good when applied to poultry.