Tinker's Casserole

I was intrigued to find this recipe in my recipe book* as I have not made it for years; it was a staple part of my repertoire in the 70s.

1lb chuck steak cut into 1” cubes
1 oz seasoned flour
4 oz bacon trimmings, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
1/2 pint light ale
2 Tbsps Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
4 oz sliced mushrooms


Toss steak in seasoned flour
Fry bacon in large pan without fat until golden
Add steak and fry quickly until golden
Add remaining ingredients except mushrooms and bring to boiling point

Turn into a 2 1/2 pint casserole and cook at 325F or 170C for 1 1/2 hours. Add mushrooms and cook for another 30 minutes

* later: To avoid confusion here, I should add that my "recipe book" is a collection of recipes made over a number of years, originally in a ring back folder, but now on my computer

Meat Loaf

This was my mother's recipe. She never bought mince (and this was long before BSE scares or the horrifying discovery of mechanically recovered meat), she always used round, or rump steak. She used to ask the butcher to mince together the meat steak and the ham. If he was given advance notice, he would do it before closing so that any left over ham did not contaminate other mince meat for other customers.

¾ lb mince )
¼ lb ham ) minced together
crumbs from 3 slices of bread
salt and pepper
1 beaten egg
little milk
little tomato ketchup
few drops Worcestershire sauce

Mix together and place in greased bowl

Cover with greaseproof paper

Instead of a greased bowl, my mother used to use a cylindrical earthenware dish, which made the meat loaf easy to slice.

Steam for 2 hours