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BEEF STEAK (a la Francaise)
They are best cut from the inner side of the sirloin, but any prime part will do. Place two pounds of steaks in a dish with a little of the best Lucca oil, and let them steep in it for eight or ten hours; add to them pepper, salt, and a little finely-minced parsley, and fry them until they are brown; what remains in the pan may be thrown over the steaks. Butter may be substituted for oil if preferred, and the steaks served up around the dish with olive sauce in the centre. Average cost of beef, 1s. 4d. per pound. Time to fry, from eight to ten minutes. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A plain marinated pan-fried steak that depends almost entirely on the quality of the meat and the oil. Two details need translating: what "Lucca oil" was, and how long a steak actually wants in the pan.
- Lucca oilLucca, in Tuscany, was a byword for fine table olive oil in Victorian Britain, and "Lucca oil" was the name under which better grades were sold. Any good, fresh, not-too-peppery extra virgin olive oil does the same job here.
- The cut"The inner side of the sirloin" is the fillet running under the sirloin bone — what would now be sold as tenderloin or filet. A sirloin, rump or ribeye steak all work; aim for pieces at least an inch thick so the eight-to-ten-minute frying time does not overcook them.
- Marinate coldEight to ten hours in oil was done in a cool larder. Do it in the refrigerator, covered, and let the steaks come back to room temperature for half an hour before they meet the pan.
- Salt timingThe recipe adds pepper, salt and parsley after the steeping, immediately before frying, rather than putting them in the marinade.
- Frying timeEight to ten minutes suits a thick fillet cooked to medium in a heavy pan over fairly high heat, turned once. For a thinner steak it is far too long — go by feel or by thermometer (about 130F for medium-rare, 140F for medium) rather than the clock.
- The pan juices"What remains in the pan may be thrown over the steaks" is the whole sauce. Let the steaks rest a few minutes on the warm dish, then tip in the resting juices along with the pan fat and minced parsley.
- Olive sauceThe olive sauce in the centre of the dish would have been a period brown sauce — a reduced meat gravy or espagnole — with stoned olives added at the end. It is optional; the pan juices alone are enough.
- Yield and costTwo pounds serves four or five as the book says, which reflects a Victorian dinner of several courses; three is more realistic as a main course today. The price of 1s 4d a pound is a mid-Victorian butcher's rate for prime beef and is of historical interest only.
The "à la Française" label here seems to signal technique rather than any particular French dish: in nineteenth-century English cookery writing it is often taken to mean a steak dressed and sauced in the French manner, as against the plain gridironed beefsteak that was treated as a national institution. The distinguishing move is the long steep in olive oil, which keeps the surface of a lean cut from drying in the pan and encourages browning. That the recipe specifies Lucca oil is itself a period detail — good olive oil reached British kitchens largely as an imported luxury sold under the name of the Tuscan district that produced it. The per-pound price, printed as a matter of course in this dictionary, was there so a household could cost a dinner in advance, and it marks prime sirloin as something well above everyday spending.