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Beef Steak and Fried Potatoes
Get steak from the fillet of the sirloin, if possible, and broil it over a clear fire; the steak should be about a third of an inch thick, and turned frequently for five minutes, when it will be sufficiently cooked; put a quarter of a pound of butter into a frying-pan, with seven or eight potatoes sliced long and thin, and fry till they become a good brown colour. The butter in which the potatoes were fried should be used to warm up the seasoning, and a tea-spoonful of minced herbs. When ready, put the herbs under the steak and garnish with the potatoes. Allow half a pound of steak for each person.
A plain steak-and-potatoes formula from the instructional section of Cassell's, written for a coal or charcoal fire. Two things need attention: the pan is much cooler than you want for potatoes, and the steak is far thinner than a modern one.
- The hinge: get real heat under a thin steakAt a third of an inch (about 8 mm) the steak cooks through almost as fast as it browns, so the surface must sear immediately. "A clear fire" meant a bright, smokeless fire burned past the flames; a charcoal fire down to clear grey coals is the direct equivalent, and a cast-iron griddle or grill pan heated until just short of smoking is the nearest indoor substitute. Five minutes with frequent turning will take a steak that thin to about medium or a little beyond.
- "Fillet of the sirloin"In Victorian British butchery this is the tenderloin muscle lying under the sirloin — sold now as fillet or filet mignon. A thin-cut sirloin, rump or flat iron behaves the same way here and costs a great deal less.
- A quarter pound of butter4 oz, about 115 g. That is a generous amount for seven or eight potatoes' worth of slices, and it is meant to shallow-fry them rather than sauté.
- Butter will burn before the potatoes brownWhole butter darkens at around 150C/300F, well below the temperature that crisps potato. Clarified butter, ghee or beef dripping holds up; if you want the flavour of whole butter, brown the potatoes in clarified fat and add a knob of fresh butter at the end.
- Cut the potatoes thin"Sliced long and thin" most plausibly means long thin slices rather than matchsticks, though the book gives no thickness. Around 3 mm on a mandoline, patted dry, browns evenly; wet slices steam and go limp.
- "The seasoning" is not specifiedCassell's assumes the reader's usual steak seasoning — salt, pepper, perhaps a little made mustard or shallot. The instruction is simply to swirl it, with the minced herbs, into the hot frying fat and pour that under the meat as a dressing.
- YieldHalf a pound (225 g) of raw steak per person is a Victorian portion and heavy by current standards; 6 oz is ample. The recipe fixes the potatoes at seven or eight without saying how many people that covers.
- Rest before servingThe recipe puts the steak straight onto the herbs. Two or three minutes off the heat first lets the juices settle so they season the herb butter rather than flooding the plate.
Steak with fried potatoes reached the English table largely through French restaurant cooking, where bifteck aux pommes frites is often associated with the Paris caf he word <word bifteck being a French borrowing of "beefsteak" that came straight back again as a fashion. Broiling over open coals gave the cook nothing to hide behind and no oven to blame. The detail about reusing the frying butter to warm the seasoning reflects a kitchen in which good butter was expensive and nothing that had absorbed flavour was thrown out.