Collar of Flank of Beef

Source: Mary Randolph, 1824

History

The 'collar of flank of beef' recorded in Mary Randolph's The Virginia House-Wife (first published 1824) is an example of 'collaring' — a preparation in which a flat cut of meat is cured, spread with herbs and spices, then rolled, bound, and boiled. As printed, the flank is rubbed with 'saltpetre and common salt,' cured ten days, skinned, spread with 'parsley, sage, thyme chopped fine, pepper, salt and pounded cloves,' rolled, sewn in a cloth, bandaged with tape, boiled five or six hours, then pressed under a weighted board for twenty-four hours before slicing. Collaring is not original to Randolph or to America: it is a long-established method in which 'the meat is laid out flat... herbs and spices are spread on top, it's then rolled, tied, wrapped in a cloth, and boiled,' the name thought to come from the coiled shape resembling a collar. A 'Collar of Beef' appears in English print cookery at least as early as Robert May's The Accomplisht Cook (1660), and 'Recipes for collared meats go back to Elizabethan times and were popular through the Georgian and Regency eras'. The record does not document a specific medieval 'galantine' or 'rollet' ancestry, nor any social-status meaning attached to it in early-republic Virginia.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Get a nice flank of beef and rub it well with a large portion of saltpetre and common salt.
  2. Let it remain ten days, then wash it clean.
  3. Take off the outer and inner skin with the gristle.
  4. Spread it on a board and cover the inside with the following mixture: parsley, sage and thyme chopped fine, pepper, salt and pounded cloves.
  5. Roll it up, sew a cloth over it, and bandage that with tape.
  6. Boil it gently five or six hours.
  7. When cold, lay it on a board without undoing it, put another board on the top with a heavy weight on it, and let it remain twenty-four hours.
  8. Take off the bandages, cut a thin slice from each end, and serve it up garnished with green pickle and sprigs of parsley.

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