Meat fillet (meat-pudding roll)

About the dish

The recipe appears in the meat chapter of 'Stor kokebok' (1914) among the finer forcemeat dishes. Here 'meat fillet' is not a whole fillet, but a shaped and cooked meat-forcemeat roll that is sliced and reassembled on the platter — a more festive relative of meat pudding.

How to make it

1. 1

   Grind the meat

   Run the beef through a meat grinder six times, then twice together with the cut-up pork, until the forcemeat is completely fine and smooth.

2. 2

   Mix the forcemeat

   Stir in salt, pepper and nutmeg, and then the crushed rusks (or the white bread soaked in the milk). Add milk and egg a little at a time while stirring, so the forcemeat becomes supple and firm.

3. 3

   Shape the rolls

   Moisten a wide board or countertop with cold water. Spread the forcemeat out to one finger's thickness and roll it up tightly into loaf-shaped rolls — three of them from this batch.

4. 4

   Brush and brown

   Brush the rolls with beaten egg and sprinkle over finely crushed rusks. Brown them gently all around in butter in a frying pan.

5. 5

   Bake in the oven

   Put the rolls in a hot oven (about 175 °C (345 °F)). Thin gradually with meat stock and cream, and let them braise gently in the oven for about 1 hour. Baste with the pan juices a few times along the way.

6. 6

   Arrange

   Slice the rolls and lay them back together as if whole on the platter. Garnish with lettuce, browned potatoes and cress.

7. 7

   The sauce

   Thicken the pan juices into a sauce, or simply reduce them and serve alongside. Tomato sauce, mushroom sauce or warm béarnaise sauce also suit the dish.