Beef à la Mode: A Hearth Classic

This is another recipe from B.C. Howard’s “Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen.”

Although separated by half a century, I think of her book as the Maryland version of Mary Randolph’s “The Virginia Housewife,” and refer to the latter as a useful cross-reference for some of the recipes (such as this one).

Both books entail a lot of hearth cooking – think dutch oven, hot coals.

Beef à la Mode is essentially an eighteenth / nineteenth-century pot-roast. In Kay Moss’ useful hearth cooking reference “Seeking the Historical Cook” she mentions employing the recipe “as an introduction to eighteenth-century tastes as well as techniques in stewing meats.”

As Moss points out, various recipes include 1) “sweet herbs” such as parsley, rosemary, or marjoram. 2) A spice or combination such as pepper, cinnamon, ginger, or cloves. 3) “Tartness” from wine, vinegar or lemon, and 4) Umami from anchovy, shellfish, mushroom or pickled walnut.

B.C. Howard includes several Beef A La Mode recipes in her book. I combined two of them by using the simpler technique and quantity of one, plus adding the oysters mentioned in another.

Some beef a la mode recipes call for larding the meat. Bacon always adds some nice seasoning but I had picked up a well-marbled roast at Lexington Market so I left well enough alone.

Carel Nicolaas Storm van ’s-Gravesande (1841-1924) Boeuf à la mode, 1906, oil on canvas, Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Camping is a convenient time for me to try out hearth cooking recipes requiring coals and a dutch oven. This was our first camping trip of 2015 – a late start!

Polish Mountain Marker, Green Ridge State Forest, Allegheny County

Recipe:

• beef
• 1 slice bread
• 1 minced shallot
• 8 ground fine cloves
• 1 Tablespoon marjoram
• pepper, black
• salt
• wine, claret
• 4 or 5 oysters (optional)

Grate up a slice of bread and wet with water or milk. To this add a minced shallot, eight cloves ground fine, a tablespoonful of marjoram leaves, pepper and salt to taste. Optional: add minced oyster, anchovy, or mushroom. Cut slits in beef and stuff with mixture. Roll or skewer beef (depending on cut) and rub with any additional stuffing. Lay some “sticks” [I used skewers] across the bottom of the pot, put in the beef with water*. Cover and add coals under and on the top and let it stew slowly for four or five hours. Just before serving pour half a pint of claret over the meat**.

• *I used water to reach the bottom of the meat but note the amount of liquid that came from cooking in the photo and use water sparingly.
• **Some recipes add wine before cooking and this may be preferable to your tastes
• I roasted brussels sprouts to go with this but they would have been fantastic added into the pot and boiled at the last 30-45 minutes

(Above steps prepared at home and packed in ziploc for camping)

I have come around to using bagged charcoals. When baking, it’s much more reliable, and I lack the knowledge and consistency of wood/fuel that a hearth cook would have at their disposal. Plus we did not have to get a fire going before the hike.

I often use an enameled dutch oven for convenience of cleaning in a camp-site but I think my cast-iron dutch oven would have been easier to handle since it is made for the job.

I also tried out a technique I first read about in “Cee Dub’s Dutch Oven and Other Camp Cookin’” Cookbook“:

This entailed getting the coals going and then burying the whole thing underground for an absentee slow cooker approach. Always be cautious about leaving any hot things exposed or anything out where a hungry animal could be attracted to them.

This gave us time to hike to Polish Mountain in search of the mysterious rock circles.  We never did see them but we enjoyed a lovely view. We also saw a scarlet tanager and a black bear.

The hike dragged on a bit long and we came back to a cold roast. So I put on some more coals and further heated and browned the beef, while also making some veggies and biscuits (from a can). The result was a tasty, well-done pot roast. There was plenty of leftover meat and vegetables to put in an omelet in the morning.

There are some potentially good cookin’ coals in there^^.

I imagine that Mrs. Howard and her contemporaries would be rather appalled to find us willingly subjecting ourselves to sleeping in the woods, even if those surroundings provide a closer situation to her kitchen than my gas range and oven. Personally I get some weird enjoyment out of turning my relaxation time into a series of chores. The remaining coals heat up dish water and everything is cleaned and put away and the relaxation after THAT… well it’s a wonderful hour or so before I get tired and go to bed.