Beef or Mutton Cake

History

"Beef or Mutton Cake" is a receipt from Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families, first published in London by Longmans in 1845; the copy consulted here is the later "New Edition" (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1882) digitized by Project Gutenberg. It appears in Chapter X, "Beef," and is listed among the book's entrées.

The dish is a seasoned, baked minced-meat loaf. Acton directs: "Chop two pounds of lean and very tender beef or mutton, with three quarters of a pound of beef suet; mix them well, and season them with a dessertspoonful of salt, nearly as much pounded cloves, a teaspoonful of pounded mace, and half a teaspoonful of cayenne. Line a round baking dish with thin slices of fat bacon, press the meat closely into it, smooth the top, and cover it with bacon, set a plate on it with a weight, and bake it two hours and a quarter." The meat is then served hot with "a little rich brown gravy," or left to go cold, "when it will be equally good".

Acton notes the dish is adaptable: the fat of the meat can be chopped in instead of suet, and it may be varied in flavour with onion or eschalot, minced savoury herbs, grated lemon-peel, rasped bacon, or mushrooms. In an accompanying observation she adds that the cakes "may be made of veal or of venison," provided a third of mutton suet or fat bacon is mixed with venison.

Beyond the recipe itself, the historical record consulted here does not document who ate this dish, where or when it originated as a preparation, or that it carried any particular social or class status. Claims to that effect are not supported by the sources.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs lean and very tender beef or mutton
• 3/4 lb beef suet
• 1 dessertspoonful salt
• 1 dessertspoonful pounded cloves
• 1 teaspoonful pounded mace
• 1/2 teaspoonful cayenne
• thin slices of fat bacon
• rich brown gravy

Instructions

1. Chop two pounds of lean and very tender beef or mutton together with three quarters of a pound of beef suet, mixing them well.
2. Season the mixture with a dessertspoonful of salt, nearly the same amount of pounded cloves, a teaspoonful of pounded mace, and half a teaspoonful of cayenne.
3. Line a round baking dish with thin slices of fat bacon.
4. Press the meat mixture closely into the dish and smooth the top.
5. Cover the meat with bacon slices, then set a plate on top with a weight upon it.
6. Bake for two hours and fifteen minutes.
7. Remove the bacon and serve the meat hot with a little rich brown gravy, or set it by until cold to serve cold.