The mouse buttock or second round of beef was smaller than the buttock or round and located lower down the rear end of the cow.
It was most often boiled, stewed, or salted, but also braised and used in soups. When eaten fresh, the mouse buttock was best cut into steaks, beaten well and then either broiled, fried, or stewed. It was recommended that fat should be added to the leaner part of the second round when cooking it.
circa 1831
Take 11 pounds of the mouse buttock, or clod of beef, cut it into pieces of 3 or 4 ounces each; put 2 or 3 large onions, and 2 ounces of beef dripping into a large deep stew pan; as soon as it is quite hot, flour the meat, and put it into the stew pan; fill it sufficiently to cover the contents with water, and stir it continually with a wooden spoon; when it has been a quarter of an hour, dredge it with flour, and keep doing so till it has been stirred as much as will thicken it; then cover it with boiling water. Skim it when it boils, and put in 1 drachm of black ground pepper, 2 of allspice, and 4 bay leaves; set the pan by the side of the fire to stew slowly about four hours. This is at once a savoury and economical dish.
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circa 1847
Take beef steaks from the sirloin. Cut them thin; remove the fat and bone, and trim them nicely. Beat them well with a beetle or a rolling-pin. Season them slightly with pepper and salt, and spread over them some finely minced onions, or some chopped mushrooms. Lay among them some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. Put them into a stew-pan with a very close cover, and without any water. Set the pan not on the fire, but before it or beside it, (turning it round frequently,) and elt them stew slowly for two or three hours, or till they are thoroughly done. Then serve them up in their own gravy.
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