Adventures in regency cooking continue as I tackle more recipes from the Jane Austen Cookbook. I chose this one because it sounded simple, I didn’t need specialty ingredients, (why was so much rosewater used in regency England?), and I thought my husband would like it since I rarely cook red meat. My usual helper had no interest in eating this dish, but he came over to help a few times.
My helper was eager to pound out the steaks. They were pretty thin to begin with, but he was thorough in making sure they were beaten within an inch of their lives.
The rest of the prep was super easy. Peel and slice the potatoes, then layer them with the steaks in the casserole dish. Then cover with beef stock, and cover and cook in the oven on low for a few hours. It made me wonder if this could be done in the crock pot.
The most challenging part was when the cooking liquid needed to be thickened on the stove with a beurre manié. Bold of the cookbook to assume I knew what that was. But google helped and once I realized it was a paste version of a roux, I was good to go.
Jane’s friend Martha Lloyd lived with their family, and this was one of her recipes. I wonder what the Austen family thought of this jugged steaks and potatoes? Our impressions were... it was fine, tender, but kinda boring. Even while making it, I thought, “No garlic or onions?” As a concept, I would make this again because it’s basically slow cooked meat and potatoes, but salt and pepper alone weren’t enough to make this memorable.
There’s a “chicken curried in the Indian manner” recipe and I think we’ll have to tackle that one next. Do you have any interest in regency cooking? Any types of recipes you'd like me to try?
See my other regency cooking posts here: https://www.heathermollauthor.com/articles/categories/regency-cooking
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