Babotje
Katie Maxwell, Visitor Services Coordinator
I have run out of desserts from 35 Receipts from “The Larder Invaded” to try. I’ve been avoiding meat dishes after attempting scrapple (I had sliced scrapple in my freezer for months), but it is now time to make a return. You can find this 1890 recipe on pages 75 and 76. While the original directions are mostly clear, I opted to again use Dr. Weaver’s adaptation to take advantage of the exact measurements and temperatures he includes. I’m a little dubious about this recipe though. Dr. Weaver suggests this South African (as interpreted by American fox hunters) dish may be an ancestor of meatloaf (75), and I am no fan of meatloaf. Oh well, Onward to the ingredients!
2 cups finely grated cold boiled beef
2 cups breadcrumbs
12 oz. pureed onion (approx 1 ½ cups)
3 tblsp. butter
1 tblsp + 1 tsp. curry powder
3-4 tblsp. lemon juice
1 egg
2 ½ cups cold beef stock
1 tsp. salt
*Not pictured: egg
Mix the meat, crumbs, curry powder, pepper and salt
I’m not sure how small “grated” is supposed to be, but I usually interpret grated meat as shredded. (My dog was intrigued by the shredding process.)
Fry the onion until yellow
Well, yellow-ish. I opted for finely dicing my onion rather than pureeing it. The original recipe just says “chopped and fried,” plus I was concerned that the pureed onion might burn on the stove. I don’t need to test the smoke alarm today.
And add to the meat mixture. Add the lemon juice.
Beat the egg to a froth with the beef stock
And work this into the dry ingredients (omitting the milk called for in the original recipe).
This doesn’t look terribly appetizing, but it smells good.
Stir this over a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly to keep it from scorching. Fill 18 greased tin forms.
Who has 18 tin forms? Also, what is a tin form?
(¾ inch deep, 2-3 inches in diameter like those illustrated here).
Neither of these are helpful!
Set these in shallow water in baking trays
How about instead of 18 tin forms, one muffin tray.
and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Serve hot with curry sauce.
Sadly, I have no curry sauce.
My improvised muffin tray method definitely worked and the kitchen smells great. However, I am just not a fan of this texture. The flavors are nice, but the texture is a bit squishy and entirely too much like meatloaf. But if you like meatloaf, you might like this. My question is, what do I do with these little meat muffins?
Puff pastry!
It disguises the squishy texture, and almost everything is better when wrapped in pastry.
