For a roast of beef, the sirloin and tenderloin cuts are considered the
best. They are more expensive, and are no better than the best cuts of a
rib roast: the sixth, seventh, and eighth ribs are the choicest cuts.
The latter roasts are served to better advantage by requesting the
butcher to remove the bones and roll the meat. Always have him send the
bones also, as they are a valuable acquisition to the soup-pot. As the
rolled rib roasts are shaved evenly off and across the top when carved
(the roasts are to be cooked rare, of course), they present an equally
good appearance for a second cooking. I have really served a roast a
third time to good advantage, serving it the last time _à la
jardinière_. Of course, in summer large cuts should not be purchased.
If the animal is young and large, and the meat is of clear, bright-red
color, and the fat white, the meat is sure to be tender and juicy.
There is no better sauce for a good, juicy roast of beef than the simple
juice of the meat. Horse-radish sauce may be served if the beef is not
particularly good.
If a sauce is made by adding hot water, flour, pepper, and salt to the
contents of the baking-pan after the beef is cooked, do not serve it
with a half-inch depth of pure grease on top in the sauce-boat. This is
as absurd, when it can be allowed to stand a moment and simply _poured
off_, or taken off with a spoon, as to serve wet salt at table, which
can easily be placed in the oven a few moments to dry, before sifting.
Also, this kind of baking-pan sauce would not be so very objectionable,
if cooks generally knew that it does not require a scientific education,
nor a herculean effort, to strain it through a gravy-strainer.