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Sirloin Roast
The backbone or thickest end should be at the right end of the dish. Carve a sirloin roast by cutting several thin slices parallel with the ribs. Then cut down across the ribs near the backbone, and also at the flank end, and separate the slices.
The slices should be as thin as possible and yet remain slices, not shavings. Turn the meat over and cut out the tenderloin and slice it in the same manner across the grain; or turn the meat over and remove the tenderloin first. Many prefer to leave the tenderloin to be served cold. Cut slices of the crisp fat on the flank in the same way, and serve to those who wish it. This is a part which many dislike, but some persons consider it very choice. Always offer it unless you know the tastes of those whom you are serving.
One short paragraph, and the first thing a modern reader needs to know is that the joint being described is no longer sold in this form.
- Bone in, with the fillet attachedThe joint has ribs, a backbone, a flank and the tenderloin lying underneath, which means it was cut across the whole loin rather than along it. A butcher now separates those: the fillet goes one way and the sirloin or rib another. What this page calls a sirloin roast has to be ordered specially, and that is why the instruction reads strangely.
- Two muscles, two directionsThe top slices run parallel with the ribs; the tenderloin, once cut out, is sliced across its own grain. Two muscles lying at different angles in one joint, each needing its own direction, is the entire difficulty of the cut, and the page disposes of it in a line.
- Slices, not shavingsAs thin as possible and yet still slices is a real standard, not a flourish. Beef carved thick across this joint eats tough, and carved too thin it is cold on the plate before anyone reaches it. The carver was being judged on both failures at once.
- The fillet kept back for coldMany prefer to leave the tenderloin to be served cold, the page says. The best piece of the joint was deliberately not served hot: it went to the cold table the next day as the centre of a lunch. That is not thrift, it is scheduling.
- Always offer the crisp fatThe fat on the flank is to be sliced the same way and offered to anybody who wants it, and the instruction is to offer it unless you already know the table’s tastes. Carving was a service rather than a distribution: the carver was reading preferences and asking when he could not.
- Which end to the rightThe backbone or thickest end goes at the right of the dish. The whole paragraph presumes a right-handed carver standing with the joint laid out for him, and somebody in the kitchen who knew to set it down that way.
A paragraph of carving, and underneath it the plan for several meals. The sirloin was the joint a household roasted whole, and this page quietly divides it up: thin slices hot off the top tonight, the fillet set aside for the cold table, the crisp fat offered to whoever will have it, and the rest to be dealt with downstairs. Carving was the moment when a week’s eating was apportioned in public, by the host, standing, with every guest watching and nothing hidden. That is also why the instruction begins not with the knife but with where to put the dish. A joint set down the wrong way round made a man look clumsy at his own table, in front of people whose good opinion the whole dinner had been arranged to secure, and preventing that was the first duty of a book like this one.