That is the title of the last section of recipes, regarding meats, in Austin’s Domestic Science Books 1 & 2, my grandmother’s 1914 home economics book. I thought that, as the last installment in this line of posts, it would be fun to share some of this information from the past and give you a little bit of history.


As usual, a recipe from the book will follow. Last night, Mr. Fix-It and I tried a recipe from the section on meats and it sounded hearty enough. It was good…sort of. The flavor was wonderful but neither one of us was real impressed with the dough. I would have used a short dough like a pie dough. This recipe called for a biscuit dough. But as I chowed down on this “meat pie”, I could see it being served in an early 1900′s boarding house or in a sod hut in the Oklahoma Indian Territory. Cooking was a pretty simple affair back then and so flavors were simple and recipes were as well. You might like it with the biscuit dough. Or you can use a pie dough. So try it and see what you think!


But first, here is an exerpt from this turn-of-the-20th century book on domestication:


By “meat supply” we are apt to mean beef supply, since we are a nation of beef-eaters, with bacon and ham and mutton holding second place in our meat diet. We may congratulate ourselves on our liking for beef, since it is meat that gives to the system the greatest vigor and energy, both of brain and body. It is a curious fact that the cheaper cuts of beef contain the most nourishment, and another curious fact that people of moderate means, even poor people, use the more expensive cuts. Why? Because the average American housewife does not know how to cook the cheaper cuts in such a way as to make them palatable, whereas people of wealth employ foreign cooks in their kitchens and these cooks, or chefs, know the superior value of the cheaper cuts and how to prepare them in their most palatable form. Ribs and loins are expensive, and yet it is for these cuts the average housewife asks when hurrying home from an afternoon’s shopping to prepare dinner for the family.


Boiled beef is the most healthful of all and it is best when prepared from the cheaper cuts because these cuts are full of tough, juicy muscles. By boiling they are made tender and digestible, burdening the stomach but a fraction of the time required to digest beefsteak, pork, or even chicken. The United States government prescribes as an ideal ration the simple one of boiled beef, bread and molasses.


Sources of Beef Supply
Although the rising prices of all meats would seem to indicate a scarcity of the supply, the United States actually produces more than enough meat for its own use. The surplus is sent to England and other foreign countries. We export more than $50,000,000 worth each year and , in addition, many shiploads of live cattle…[The US exported $3,439,000,000 of beef in 2010]


Western Cattle Ranches
Nowadays large rances are appearing wherever the water supply is sufficient to warrant them, and instead of “range” cattle, the majority of the cattle shipped to the great markets are ranch cattle. Close to the mountains and in the stream-fed canyons you may still meet “bunches” of surprised-looking cattle, each group led by a masterful great bull, just as the herds of buffalo were led fifty years ago in the same canyons and on the same plains. [mountains and canyons in Oklahoma???] Cattle ranching is often immensely profitable and a large ranch is likely to be equipped with every city comfort and convenience, from a telephone which forms part of the miles of wire fence, to a school and a store.


Both on the ranches and the ranges, branding is still practiced, though many believe it should be abolished and some more humane system of designating cattle be substituted for it. What is known as the “running iron” is illegal in most states, but it is none the less widely used although it is regarded as less humane than the shaped brand, which requires but an instant of application to leave a permanent mark. [Note: Branding is still done her in Oklahoma and in Texas]


And so, let’s make use of some of this beef!!