Preparing a Steak - 1796 style

I ran across this recipe from a 1796 cookbook. It doesn't sound appetizing, but I will leave the final verdict to more experienced gourmands than myself.


American Cookery, by Amelia Simmons (1796)
(The first American cookbook)

To dress a Beef-Stake, sufficient for two gentlemen, with a fire made of two newspapers.

Let the beef be cut in slices, and lay in a pewter platter, pour on water just sufficient to cover them, salt and pepper well cover with another platter inverted; then place your dish upon a stool bottom upwards, the legs of such length as to raise the platter three inches from the board; cut your newspapers into small strips, light with a candle and apply them gradually, so as to keep a live fire under the whole dish, til the whole are expended when the stake will be done; butter may then be applied, so as to render it grateful.