Raw round scraped to a pulp with a knife, pressed loosely into balls, cooked two minutes.
With a knife, scrape from a piece of raw round steak as much as possible of the soft part of the meat. Dust with a very little salt and form into balls in the palm of the hand, but applying no more pressure than absolutely necessary. Cook for two minutes on a hot omelet pan, shaking the balls about so they will not stick.-E. M. K.
Good Housekeeping's Cook Book, 1909. Public domain; transcription unaltered.
Two minutes in a pan, rolled about to colour all sides, browns the outside and leaves the centre raw. That is the intent — the loose forming is specifically to keep it tender.
Scraped and reformed beef is not a whole steak. Surface bacteria get distributed through the middle, which is exactly why a rare steak is fine and a rare burger is a different question.
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Read the original page →Marrow from “animals, freshly killed,” administered to bloodless patients “to stimulate their fresh blood formation.” The logic is that marrow makes blood, so eat marrow.
Meals Medicinal · 1905
Meat going off? Suspend it over a bowl of salt, add two ounces of sulphuric acid by degrees, and let the fumes work. “Care must be taken not to breathe them.”
Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis's Cook Book · 1914
Chop the pickle into ammonia and watch for deep blue — proof it was “cooked in brass or copper kettles.” A routine kitchen test, because it happened constantly.
Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis's Cook Book · 1914