Yesterday I posted the Country Christmas Cake recipe from
Laurie Colwin’s book, More Home Cooking. Today I’m sharing her other Christmas
recipe for Spiced Beef. The following is quoted directly from the section of
the book entitled How to Face the Holidays:
And now to the spiced beef. Like all of Elizabeth David’s
recipes, this one is perfectly expressed, perfectly correct, and perfectly
delicious. The fact that I produced this rather magnificent thing shocked even
me. My mother was also extremely impressed, as were the six friends who
gathered on Christmas day and ate every scrap of the beef, which was cut paper
thin.
This recipe is another example of something that takes just
a few minutes’ work and pays you back a million times for your meager efforts. That is my idea of heaven: a huge payoff for not too much work.
For Spiced Beef, go to the butcher and get the leanest 6
pounds of bottom round he has. Some supermarkets sell what is called “natural
beef,” which is grass-fed, slaughtered young, and tested for pesticide
residues. If you can find this, or any organic beef, get it.
Take the beef home, put it in a crock with a cover, rub it
all over with ½ cup dark brown sugar, and chill it. Rub it with the sugar once
a day for two days. Then crush together 1 cup coarse sea salt and ½ cup each of
black peppercorns, juniper berries, and allspice. Rub the meat with this
mixture. Continue to chill it, rubbing and turning it for 10 days. This whole
operation takes about 10 seconds per day.
When you are about to cook the beef, wipe off the spices (or
keep some of them on, which makes it more pastramilike) and put it in a
casserole into which it just fits. Pour in a cup of water, put a piece of wax
paper under the lid, and roast the meat at 290 degrees F. for 5 hours.
Leave the beef to cool in the juice. Then take it out, wrap
it in max paper, and put it on a board. Put another board on top of it, weight
it with about 5 pounds (cans will do nicely), and chill it overnight. The beef
will pack down and can be sliced thin enough to see through. It has, according
to Elizabeth David, “a rich, mellow, spicy flavor which does seem to convey to
us some sort of idea of the food eaten by our forbears.”
The following concluding paragraph in the article refers to both the recipe above and the Country Christmas Cake recipe yesterday:
These two delicacies have that profound, original, homemade
taste that cannot be replicated, no matter what you spend. They make the person
who made them feel ennobled. After all, it is holiday time. Aren't we meant to
draw together and express our good feelings for one another? What could be
better than to offer something so elementally, so wholesomely down-home and yet
elegant? And both go a long way: You can feed a lot of loved ones with them.
So this is my way around the holidays. If I did nothing
else, I would still make this cake and spiced beef and fill my head with
visions of candles and pine boughs. The sun goes down at four o’clock, the air
is damp and chill, but in the pantry my cake is mellowing, and soon I will
spice my beef as centuries of people have done before me.
Note:
Even if you don’t make the cake or the beef for the
holidays, I hope you have enjoyed reading about them.
I plan to make both recipes because, like Colwin, it’s my way around
the frenzy of the holidays and also fondly remembering the time when people gave as gifts jars of homemade jam and knitted mittens.
This is so much fun getting to know all these different Christmas traditions. I feel like it's Christmas season already!
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of things I like to make for Christmas. Spritz Cookies are my easy favorite, but since my recipe is not original, I can just direct people to the Wilton Cookie Press website for their basic Spritz recipe. (http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Classic-Spritz-Cookies) I can make hundreds, once I get that cookie press going. I decorate them with candied fruit, since colored sugar gets too messy, unless I have help - then I let my helper sprinkle on the sugar.
I'll bet your kitchen is abuzz with activity in December, given your expertise in the kitchen. I sometimes make the Spritz cookies. I'll check out your recipe to see if it differs from mine. Looking forward to future Christmas posts from you.
DeleteI have to admit years ago that I made our Christmas cake,pudding plus loads of mince pies (my MIL always made her own mince meat,she use to give it to friends as a pre Christmas gift).....when I look back I cannot equate that baking person to how I dislike cooking now.Ida
ReplyDeleteIn many ways, the English Christmas celebrations I read about sound so neat: The roast goose, Christmas pudding, Christmas crackers, etc. Insofar as cooking now, I'm sure you feel like "been there done that," as I often feel as well. But I think I just try to make the things I've always made to try to get into a Christmas frame of mind. Mostly always works!
DeleteThe recipe looks great. One question, how is the meat heated up at the end? I'm guessing it is served hot when sliced.
ReplyDeleteI always bake candy cake cookies (recipe off the back of a bag of flour in about 1960), We have a traditional meal for Christmas Eve. I make enchiladas, chilies rellenos and whatever else strikes my fancy. Christmas dinner changes from year to year.
Darla
Darla, I've only served the meat cold, like on a buffet along with other Mostly) cold items. But I see no reason why it couldn't be heated, even in the microwave.
DeleteI did not read the preparing of the meat, because I don´t eat meat.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is something - a Xmas special - I might share on my blog, closer to the date.
Mette, was wondering if other family members eat meat and if so, what is served at Christmas. Of course, it doesn't have to include meat, but for me Christmas dinner wouldn't be the same without turkey or ham. But I do admire your ability to abstain from meat. Do share one of your Xmas treats with us on your blog!
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