Suet? Dripping? Stuff that

The lidded pot went into the oven at 150°C as I thought our stove wouldn’t run slowly enough. PHOTOS: PETER DOWDEN

A century ago, we did things differently - which extended to cooking. Peter Dowden decided to get a taste.

SUBSCRIBER: 100 years ago - Stuffed steak recipe

I thought it would be fun to make this 1926 recipe which was republished today in the Otago Daily Times' "100 Years Ago" column - from a time when lightly cooked meat was called rare because it didn’t happen very often.

I don’t think our ancestors of a century ago got breadcrumbs from a plastic bag marked ‘‘breadcrumbs’’ and I am sure a slice or two of bread would work well.

The original recipe published on June 4, 1926. Image: ODT files

I looked up ‘‘suet’’ and ‘‘dripping’’ in a dictionary so you don’t have to - firstly, ew; secondly, I didn’t have any so I used olive oil instead in both cases.

Did they boil everything in those days? It must have been a hygiene thing. I risked a chopped raw onion.

I have no idea what half an egg is, or from where to get one, so I used a whole one.

Otherwise I followed the instructions closely. The filling spilled out all over when I rolled the meat but a fair bit stayed inside.

I trussed the rolled meat with some natural-fibre hairy string I found (I assume ‘‘tape’’ in the original means the sort of fabric tape you might tie an apron with, not gaffer or duct tape).

The rolled meat was trussed with some natural-fibre hairy string.

A quick sizzle on all sides then I threw in the remaining crumbs of filling - I imagined it would form quite a decent gravy - then the prescribed cup of water.

I put the lidded pot in the oven at 150°C as I thought our stove wouldn’t run slowly enough.

Two hours later, I lifted the resultant black-encrusted lump from a glistening pool of what looked like tar, sprinkled in a teaspoon of flour, some pepper and salt and threw in a cup of water and whisked it up.

The crumbs and parsley had indeed formed a delicious gravy that tasted far nicer than it looked - as did the meat, when carved: the classic roast-beef flavour of childhood, decidedly well-done.