Spiced Beef
Good and wholesome
For twelve pounds of the round, rump, or thick flank of beef, take a large teaspoon of freshly-pounded mace, and of ground black pepper, twice as much of cloves, one small nutmeg, and a quarter of a teaspoon of cayenne, all in the finest powder. Mix them well with seven ounces of brown sugar, rub the beef with them and let it lie three days: add to it then half a pound of fine salt, and rub and turn it once in twenty-four hours for twelve days. Just wash, but do not soak it; skewer or bind it into good form, put it into a stewpan or saucepan nearly of its size, pour to it a pint and a half [note: a pint was 16 fl oz at this time] of good beef broth, and when it begins to boil, take of the scum, and throw in one small onion, a moderate-sized faggot of thyme and parsley, and two large, or four small carrots. Let it simmer quite softly for four hours and a half, and if not wanted to serve hot, leave it in its own liquor until it is nearly cold. This is an excellent and far more wholesome dish than the hard, bright-coloured beef which is cured with large quantities of salt and saltpetre: two ore three ounces of juniper berries may be added to it with the spice, to heighten its flavour.
Beef, 12 lbs.; sugar, 7 oz.; mace and black pepper, each, 1 large teaspoonful; cloves, in powder, 1 large dessertspoonful; nutmeg, 1; cayenne, 1/4 teaspoonful: 3 days. Fine salt, 1/2 lb.: 12 days. Beef broth (or bouillon), 1 1/2 pint; onion, 1 small; bunch of herbs; carrots, 2 large, or 4 small: stewed 4 1/2 hours.
Obs. - We give this receipt exactly as we have often had it used, but celery and turnips might be added to the gravy; and when the appearance of the meat is much considered, three-quarters of an ounce of saltpetre may be mixed with the spices; the beef may also be plainly boiled in water only, with a few vegetables, or baked in a deep pan with a little gravy. No meat must ever be left to cool in the stewpan or saucepan in which it is cooked; it must be lifted into a pan of its own depth, and the liquor poured upon it.
That is how the recipe appears in the book. I used 2 Kg beef (37% of the recipe quantity), and decided to use the saltpetre, mainly because I wanted to try it out. My quantities were:
Beef - 2 Kg
Sugar - 2 oz, 55g (2.6 oz would have been the scaled down number)
mace, pepper - scant 1/2 tsp
cloves - scant tsp
nutmeg - about 1/3
cayenne - tiny pinch
saltpetre - 1g
salt - 3 oz, 85g