The prize recipes from Miss Smiles

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I’ve been looking at old recipes again, this time from 1893 and published in The Capricornian, from Rockhampton in Queensland. There must have been a competition because these are the prize recipes from Miss Smiles. Mains and dessert – fried steak and tapioca cream:

Fried Steak.— While we favour broiled steak as being very much more delicate and digestible, still there are many who like the taste of fried steak, and for such we give the following :-
 – Set the pan or spider over a clear hot fire and when very hot lay in the steak, and cover closely. When it has cooked enough to let go of the pan, turn and cover again. Be sure the fire is not hot enough to scorch the meat or its juices. Turn every minute or two until it is nicely browned, then take it up on a hot platter, season with pepper and salt and bits of butter. Cover again closely, and set it in the oven for a minute to melt the butter and draw out the juice of the meat. Or, if a gravy is liked, place a spoonful each of butter and flour in the pan, brown it nicely, add a little boiling water, let it boil up well, and you will have a nice gravy for either steak or potatoes. The ordinary way of frying steak, crisp in a quantity of fat, is not to be compared with the method above described, as all the juice is fried out of it, and it becomes tough and indigestible. Many salt and pepper steak before frying or broiling it, but it is much better to season the meat after it is cooked.

Tapioca Cream — Soak half a teacupful of tapioca two hours in water (enough to give a chance to swell), then drain, and stir it into a quart of boiling milk. Cook until the tapioca is well dissolved, and stir into it three well-beaten yolks of eggs, a teacupful of sugar, and a little salt. After boiling a few minutes, or until the egg begins to stiffen, remove and add vanilla or lemon flavouring. Beat the three whites stiff, and stir them very lightly into the tapioca, after placing it in the dish from which it is to be served. To be eaten cold. It is excellent.