Beef A La Mode
In a piece of the rump, cut deep openings with a sharp knife; put in pieces of pork cut into dice, previously rolled in pepper, salt, cloves and nutmeg. Into an iron stew-pan lay pieces of pork, sliced onions, slices of lemon, one or two carrots and a bay-leaf; lay the meat on and put over it a piece of bread-crust as large as the hand, a half-pint wine and a little vinegar, and afterwards an equal quantity of water or broth, till the meat is half covered; cover the dish close and cook till tender. Then take it out, rub the gravy thoroughly through a sieve, skim off the fat, add some sour cream, return to the stew-pan and cook ten minutes. Instead of the cream, capers or sliced cucumber pickles can be added to the gravy if preferred, or a handful of grated ginger-bread or rye bread. The meat can also be laid for some days before in a spiced vinegar or wine pickle. - Mrs. L. S. Williston, Heidelberg, Germany.
This is a German Sauerbraten-adjacent pot roast, larded and braised in wine, with a gravy thickened by bread rather than flour. The braise itself is straightforward; most of what needs translating is vocabulary and quantities.
- The larding is the point"cut deep openings" means piercing the roast with a narrow knife and pushing the seasoned pork down into the channels, not slashing the surface. The recipe specifies pork cut into dice and rolled in pepper, salt, cloves and nutmeg; salt pork or fatback will serve, and the fat bastes the lean rump from the inside as it cooks.
- The cutA "piece of the rump" is bottom round or rump roast, a lean cut that will be tough at any temperature short of a long braise. The recipe gives no weight, no timing and no oven: it is covered close and cooked on the stove-top at a bare simmer until tender, which will take several hours.
- Half a pint of wineOne cup. The "equal quantity of water or broth" plus the wine should bring the liquid halfway up the meat, no further; this is a braise, not a boil.
- The bread-crust and the gingerbreadBoth act as thickeners. A palm-sized piece of dry crust dissolves into the liquid over the cooking time; the grated gingerbread or rye bread is offered at the end as an alternative to the sour cream, and the gingerbread will sweeten and spice the gravy noticeably.
- Sour cream will splitOnce the gravy is sieved and skimmed, take it off the direct heat, stir a ladleful into the cream to temper it, then return everything to the pan and hold it below a simmer for the ten minutes. Boiling full-fat sour cream in an acidic wine gravy breaks it.
- "Iron stew-pan," "cover the dish close"A heavy Dutch oven with a well-fitting lid. Some nineteenth-century cooks sealed the gap with a flour-and-water paste; a sheet of foil under the lid does the same job of keeping the reduced liquid in the pot.
- The optional pickle"Laid for some days before in a spiced vinegar or wine pickle" is the sauerbraten marinade: two to three days refrigerated is ample, and the marinade can replace part of the braising liquid. The recipe does not say where the meat was kept; days at room temperature is not a safe practice with a large raw roast.
- YieldA rump roast of this kind will serve eight to ten, depending on size. Slice across the grain, and slice thin; the larding shows as a pattern of white dots in the cut face.
The contribution line is worth reading closely: Mrs. L. S. Williston sent it from Heidelberg, and the dish is German household cooking under a French name. Boeuf à la mode was a French name for a larded, wine-braised beef round; this version keeps the features the name originally implied, chiefly the pork lardoons driven through a lean cut. The bread-crust thickener and the grated gingerbread alternative belong to an older German habit of thickening, and gingerbread gravy remains familiar in Rhineland sauerbraten today. The optional vinegar or wine pickle at the end of the entry is the same tradition, described almost in passing as though a reader in Ohio would understand it. Buckeye's compilers drew recipes from correspondents, and this page shows how directly a German kitchen could reach an American one through the mail.