Rolled Beef, Eaten Like Hare is a traditional British recipe, based on Mrs Beeton's recipe of 1861, for a classic dish of beef sirloin marinated in port wine and vinegar stuffed with forcemeat, rolled and roasted whilst being basted with the remaining marinade. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Rolled Beef, Eaten Like Hare.
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This is a traditional British recipe redacted from the redoubtable Mrs Beeton's 1861 volume Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, the classic Victorian cookbook.
Original Recipe
ROLLED BEEF, to eat like Hare.
646. INGREDIENTS.—About 5 lbs. of the inside of the sirloin, 2 glasses of port wine, 2 glasses of vinegar, a small quantity of forcemeat (No. 417), 1 teaspoonful of pounded allspice.
Mode.—Take the inside of a large sirloin, soak it in 1 glass of port wine and 1 glass of vinegar, mixed, and let it remain for 2 days. Make a forcemeat by recipe No. 417, lay it on the meat, and bind it up securely. Roast it before a nice clear fire, and baste it with 1 glass each of port wine and vinegar, with which mix a teaspoonful of pounded allspice. Serve, with a good gravy in the dish, and send red-currant jelly to table with it.
Time.—A piece of 5 lbs. about 1-1/2 hour before a brisk fire.
Average cost, for this quantity, 5s. 4d.
Sufficient for 4 persons.
Seasonable at any time.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
2.25kg piece of sirloin
300ml port wine
300ml vinegar
75g forcemeat No. 417
1 tsp ground allspice
Method:
Pour 150ml port wine and 150ml of the vinegar in the base of a shallow dish. Add the sirloin, inner side down, then cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for 24 hours.
After this time, remove the beef from the maenad, lay the forcemeat along the inside of the meat then roll up and bind securely with butcher's twine. Place in a roasting dish then set in an oven pre-heated to 220°C and roast for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C and continue roasting for 20 minutes per kg (for rare) and 40 minutes per kg (for well done). During this time baste frequently with a mix of the remaining port wine, vinegar and ground allspice.
When done, allow to rest, covered, for 20 mites then transfer to a serving dish, pour over a good gravy and accompany with redcurrant jelly.
