HOW TO COOK AUSTRALIAN MEAT. 323 
be dealt with hereafter. With regard to the second ques- 
tion, I took six pounds of undeniably good meat, to see 
what I could do towards making it fit for the table. My own 
cook, and the cooks of several of my friends, had tried, or 
pretended to try/ some “ speriments” as they called them ; 
but their invariable success was — failure; and the messes 
they sent up as the result of their manipulations were some- 
thing too dreadful to contemplate, much less to taste. For- 
getting that the meat was already cooked, it was put on to 
stew till it shred into fibres that looked like strings of brown 
vermicelli. It was, therefore, clear that nothing was to be 
made out of that process. Determined, however, to perse- 
vere in the matter, and believing that the absence of both 
ignorance and prejudice would materially increase the chances 
of success, I resolved to take the matter in hand myself. 
The conclusion arrived at was, that as boiling was of little 
use, roasting should be tried. Opening a tin of preserved 
beef, which stated on the outside that it was “TindaFs,” 
already cooked, and imported from Australia into England 
by Messrs. McCall, I turned the whole contents into a large 
dish. Carefully scraping off with a wooden spoon all the 
fat and gravy from the block of beef, which seemed, as far as 
as I could make out, to be the under-cut of a large sirloin, I 
I tied it tightly round with a string, putting a piece of the 
solid fat in the centre, much in the same manner as rolled 
beef is tied, the only difference being that I tied it very tight. 
I then hung it as if it were a fresh joint to be roasted, before 
a bright and clear fire, giving it a slight sprinkle of flour all 
over after it was hung. Separating as well as I could the 
congealed gravy from the mass of grease that had surrounded 
the meat, I placed it in the dripping-pan, and, at intervals of 
a few minutes, basted with it the turning joint. In less than 
twenty minutes, the savoury smell that filled the kitchen 
convinced me that, so far, my experiment was succeeding. 
In half an hour, the meat having become well browned by 
the brisk heat, I took it dowm. Pouring off the dripping out 
of the pan, I made a rich, brown gravy in the ordinary way, 
by the addition of a little flour and w ater to w 7 hat remained ; 
and having served up the joint, with proper vegetables, I 
sat down to a bond fide dinner. Expectantly I w 7 atched the 
first slice cut off; the knife passed through the meat cleanly 
and easily ; the second, third, and fourth slices came off 
equally well, and, to my great delight, 1 found that one fault 
had been cured — the meat was no longer stringy, but firm 
and compact. Tasting what I had on my plate. I found it 
all I could desire. I do not pretend to say that it was equal 
