weather which permits the meat to be hung till it is tender, and give
the butcher some days' notice of their wish for them.

If, friendly reader, you wish to entertain your mouth with a superlative
beef-steak, you must have the inside of the sirloin cut into steaks. The
next best steaks are those cut from the middle of a rump, that has been
killed at least four days in moderate weather, and much longer in cold
weather, when they can be cut about six inches long, four inches wide,
and half an inch thick: do not beat them, which vulgar trick breaks the
cells in which the gravy of the meat is contained, and it becomes dry
and tasteless.

N.B. If your butcher sends steaks which are not tender, we do not insist
that you should object to let him be beaten.

Desire the butcher to cut them of even thickness; if he does not, divide
the thicker from the thinner pieces, and give them time accordingly.

Take care to have a very clear, brisk fire; throw a little salt on it;
make the gridiron hot, and set it slanting, to prevent the fat from
dropping into the fire, and making a smoke. It requires more practice
and care than is generally supposed to do steaks to a nicety; and for
want of these little attentions, this very common dish, which every body
is supposed capable of dressing, seldom comes to table in perfection.

Ask those you cook for, if they like it under, or thoroughly done; and
what accompaniments they like best; it is usual to put a table-spoonful
of catchup (No. 439), or a little minced eschalot, or No. 402, into a
dish before the fire; while you are broiling, turn the steak, &c. with a
pair of steak-tongs, it will be done in about ten or fifteen minutes;
rub a bit of butter over it, and send it up garnished with pickles and
finely-scraped horse-radish. Nos. 135, 278, 299, 255, 402, 423, 439, and
356, are the sauces usually composed for chops and steaks.

N.B. Macbeth's receipt for beef-steaks is the best--

----"_when 't is done, 't were well
If 't were done quickly._"

_Obs._ "_Le veritable_ BIFTECK, _comme il se fait en Angleterre_," as
Mons. Beauvilliers calls (in his _l'Art du Cuisinier_, tom. i. 8vo.
Paris, 1814, p. 122) what he says we call "_romesteck_," is as highly
esteemed by our French neighbours, as their "_ragouts_" are by our
countrymen, who

----"post to Paris go,
Merely to taste their soups, and mushrooms know."

KING'S _Art of Cookery_, p. 79.

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