1 rump roast
Water
1 pint red wine
Carrots
Turnips
1 head celery
garlic
Ground cloves
Salt and pepper
Scraped horseradish
Stuffing (”forcemeat”) to taste

Take out as much of the bone as can be done with a saw, that it may lie flat on the dish, stuff it with forcemeat made as before directed, lay it in a pot with two quarts of water, a pint of red wine, some carrots and turnips cut in small pieces and strewed over it, a head of cellery cut up, a few cloves of garlic, some pounded cloves, pepper and salt, stew it gently till sufficiently done, skim the fat off, thicken the gravy, and serve it up; garnish with little bits of puff paste nicely baked, and scraped horse-radish.

From The Virginia Housewife, or, Methodical Cook, by Mary Randolph, 1860 edition of 1831 book.

Comment: Mrs. Randolph does not tell us how big a rump she wants us to cook, but from the quantity of water we would guess it is a fairly large one. The days of mechanized meat cutting and the packaging of ever-smaller cuts in individualized plastic trays lay far in the future. And that’s not a typo in the recipe; that was how Ms. Randolph spelled “celery.” Standardized spelling lay in the future as well.

          

Beef, raw, minced fine
Clarified butter
Salt
Pepper
Onions, sliced

This is a favorite Scotch dish; few families are without it; it keeps well, and is always ready to make an extra dish.
Take beef, and chop and mince it very small; to which add some salt and pepper. Put this, in its raw state, into small jars, and pour on the top some clarified butter. When intended for use, put the clarified butter into a frying-pan, and slice some onions into the pan, and fry them. Add a little water to it, and then put in the minced meat. Stew it well, and in a few minutes it will be fit to serve up.

The Cook’s Oracle by William Kitchiner, MD, New York, 1829

Comment: Kitchiner notes this as being originally from a work called “Seaman’s Guide” by The Hon. John Cochrane, 1797, p. 42. There is nothing dishonorable about one cookbook author using material from another (particularly if the other is so old as to be presumed dead) but it is pleasant to see the earlier source given credit.

The use of the term “collop” for a small circular piece of meat is evidently peculiar to Scotland and the far north of England. The origin of this word is rather obscure, except for hints that it may be related to Swedish kalops “beef stew” and German Klops “meatball”.  We suggest any sort of beef roast which is free from fat or gristle should work. The technique of sealing an un- or under-cooked ingredient in a jar, packed tightly and sealed over with a layer of butter, is also called “potting” and was common in days before mechanical refrigeration was available.