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Beefsteak with Mushrooms
Before putting the steak on to broil, prepare the mushrooms. If canned, open and turn them out of the can; 1/2 a can will be sufficient for an ordinary-sized steak. Cut the mushrooms in two, and saute them in a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan. Add 1/2 cup of bouillon or clear stock and let them simmer for ten minutes. Not having the bouillon or stock at hand, use boiling water with half a teaspoonful of beef extract, well-seasoned with salt, paprika, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Broil the steak over a clear fire, dish it on a hot platter, pour the mushrooms and gravy around it, cover, and let it stand in a hot oven not over three minutes, and serve.
A steak-house presentation from the era when mushrooms in a can were a modern convenience. The sauce is built and finished before the steak ever meets the fire, which is still the right order of operations.
- Mushroom quantityThe recipe measures by the can rather than by weight, so the amount is approximate. Fresh cremini or button mushrooms, about 8 oz sliced thick, work in place of canned; give them longer in the butter to drive off their water and take some colour.
- Beef extractThis means a concentrated meat paste of the Bovril or Liebig type. The recipe's half teaspoonful dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water can be replaced with demi-glace concentrate or a good beef base. Season lightly at first, as these are salty.
- "A clear fire"An open coal or wood fire burned down past the smoking stage, with no flame licking the meat. A hot charcoal bed, or a heavy cast-iron pan brought to smoking point, gives the same result.
- The three-minute restThe oven here is a warming step, not a cooking one; the recipe gives no temperature. Any longer than the stated three minutes and the steak carries on cooking under its cover of sauce.
- DonenessNo timing is given for the steak itself, which was left to the cook's judgement. A 1 to 1 1/4 inch steak needs about 4 minutes a side for medium-rare; go by an instant-read thermometer at 130-135F rather than the clock.
- PaprikaIn turn-of-the-century American cookery paprika generally meant sweet Hungarian, used as much for colour as heat. Smoked paprika will pull the sauce in a quite different direction.
- YieldThe recipe specifies only "an ordinary-sized steak," without cut or weight; likely a steak for more than one person, but the text does not say.