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Beefsteak and Onions
A steak from the rump or the top round will answer very well; by laying it on the meat board and beating it for two minutes with a meat hammer or wooden potato masher, it will be made more tender. Have the cut from 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches in thickness. Put in a frying-pan 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, and when it is hot, not brown, lay in the steak and cook ten minutes, not too fast or it will burn the butter and meat. Turn and cook on the other side the same length of time, taking care in turning that the meat is not pricked, as the juices must be kept in as much as possible. After it has been turned it may be sprinkled with salt and pepper; there is then little danger of the salt extracting the juice.
Before cooking the steak prepare 1 pint of medium-sized onions; boil them rapidly for twenty minutes in slightly salted water. Drain them well, and slice in thin, even slices. Dish the steak on a hot platter and set it in the oven to keep hot. Put the sliced onions in the frying-pan and fry in the butter and meat juice until a golden brown; season with pepper and a little salt, and add 2 teaspoonfuls of wine or tarragon vinegar. Stir gently, keeping the onion slices as whole as possible. Pour this around the hot steak, and sprinkle finely minced parsley over all.
A good effect, both for the palate and the eye, is obtained by the addition of a half dozen freshly cooked, small young beets. Slice or dice thin, and add to the onion sauce just before serving it, letting them remain long enough to get hot, but not long enough to lose their bright color.
A straightforward pan steak with a butter-fried onion garnish. Two details in the original are worth adjusting: the cooking time and the pre-boiling of the onions.
- Cooking timeTen minutes per side in butter will take a 1 1/4-inch rump or top round steak well past medium. For a rosy interior, figure 3-4 minutes a side over medium-high heat and pull at 130-135F on an instant-read thermometer, then rest five minutes.
- Butter will burnThe recipe is right that butter over high heat scorches. Either use clarified butter or ghee, or add a tablespoon of neutral oil to the butter so it takes the heat, then baste the steak with the foaming butter as it cooks.
- "1 pint of onions"A dry-measure pint of small onions works out to somewhere around 12 oz to a pound, or three or four medium ones. The twenty-minute boil presumably softens them and takes off their sharpness; sliced onions cooked slowly in the pan fat for 15-20 minutes get there with more flavour and no draining.
- Slicing after boilingBoiled whole onions slip apart when sliced, and the recipe later asks that the slices be kept as whole as possible in the pan. Cook them just until a knife meets slight resistance, drain thoroughly, and cool a few minutes before cutting.
- BeetsCook the beets separately and add them at the last moment as directed, or they will bleed and turn the whole garnish magenta. Small beets take 25-40 minutes boiled or roasted, depending on size.
- SaltingThe recipe holds off salting until after the turn on the theory that early salt draws out the juices; salt does pull moisture to the surface at first, though not to the extent the period believed. Salt applied 40 minutes or more ahead has time to penetrate and generally improves the crust; salt applied right at the pan is the timing most worth avoiding, since surface moisture works against browning.
- Resting and the platterHolding the steak in the oven while the onions fry does the work of a rest, but keep the oven low, around 200F, and leave the steak uncovered so the crust does not steam soft.
- YieldA single steak of this thickness, perhaps 1 to 1 1/2 lb depending on the cut, will serve two or three with the onion and beet garnish.