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Beef Steak, Porterhouse
Cut a steak from the sirloin about one inch in thickness. It should have the undercut left on, and must be cut from the chine-bone portion. Rub all over with a cut shallot or clove of garlic, and grill over a clear fire. It should be turned every minute until done. When cooked, lay on a very hot dish, and garnish with horse-radish and fried mushrooms. Probable cost, 3s. 6d.
A one-inch bone-in steak cooked hard and fast over live coals, with the seasoning done by rubbing rather than sprinkling. Almost everything here still works; the language is the obstacle.
- What "porterhouse" means hereIn British butchery the sirloin is the loin, and a steak cut from it "with the undercut left on" is the fillet still attached across the bone — what an American butcher sells as a porterhouse or T-bone. Ask for a bone-in strip steak with the tenderloin included, about 1 lb to 1 1/4 lb at one inch thick.
- Chine-bone portionThe chine is the backbone. The instruction appears to point you to the steaks cut from the end of the loin nearest the chine, where the undercut is largest; steaks from the far end have little or no fillet. The book does not explain the phrase further.
- A clear fireThis means charcoal or wood burned down to glowing coals with no smoke or flame — direct radiant heat. A very hot gas grill or a preheated cast-iron grill pan gives the same result; a smoking, flaring fire will coat the meat in soot.
- Turning every minuteNot an eccentricity. Modern testing suggests frequent turning gives more even cooking and no worse a crust than a single flip. Keep it up for the whole cook.
- When is it doneThe book gives no time because fires varied. For a one-inch steak over high heat, figure 6 to 9 minutes total, and judge by an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part away from the bone: 125F for rare, 130-135F for medium rare, 140F for medium.
- The shallot or garlic rubCut the clove and scrub it over both faces of the raw meat. This deposits far less than a minced clove would. The book does not mention salt; season the steak yourself.
- Rest before serving"A very hot dish" is there to keep the meat hot at table. Warm the platter, and let the steak sit five minutes off the heat before carving the strip and fillet off the bone.
- The garnishHorseradish here means freshly grated root, not the creamed sauce, and it should be plain and sharp against the beef. Fry the mushrooms in butter separately and pile them on at the last moment so they do not weep onto the dish.
- Cost and yieldThree shillings and sixpence was a substantial sum for a single dish in a Victorian household, which tells you this was a treat rather than a weekday chop. One such steak serves two generously.
Porterhouse steak takes its name, by the usual account, from the porter house — a tavern selling porter and plain chop-house food — and the term is generally traced to American eating houses of the early nineteenth century, though the specific origin stories attached to it are folklore rather than documented. It later passed into British usage, which is why Cassell's has to define it in butcher's terms at all: an English cook already knew what a sirloin steak was, but "porterhouse" needed the explanation that the undercut stays on. The reasoning is visible in the instructions: a clear fire, constant turning, a very hot dish, and a garnish that flatters rather than disguises.