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Steak a la Bordelaise
Put 1 tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan, and 6 fresh mushrooms; cover and set on the back of the stove until the mushrooms are tender. Push the mushrooms to one side of the pan and add 1 tablespoonful of flour to the butter; when well mixed stir in a cupful of stock. Let it come to a boil, then season with salt, pepper, and kitchen bouquet, and let it stand over hot water while you broil the steak. As soon as the steak is broiled, place it on a hot platter, arrange the mushrooms on the steak, and pour the sauce over it all. Garnish with sprigs of parsley, and serve at once.
A brown mushroom sauce built in one pan while the steak broils. The whole thing hinges on timing: the sauce must be finished and holding before the steak goes under the heat, because it waits far better than the meat does.
- "Back of the stove"On a coal range the rear of the top plate was the coolest zone. Use the lowest burner setting and a lid, so the mushrooms sweat and release their liquid rather than browning; cook until tender, which will likely take several minutes.
- Kitchen bouquetA commercial browning and seasoning liquid, caramel-based, still sold today. It darkens and rounds out a pale sauce; a teaspoon is plenty for a cup. Soy sauce or a dash of Worcestershire does similar work if you have neither.
- A cupful of stock8 fl oz. Beef or veal stock, and preferably unsalted, since the sauce reduces slightly and you season it at the end. With 1 tablespoon each of butter and flour this gives a light coating sauce, not a gravy.
- Holding over hot waterThe instruction is a bailout, not a garnish step: set the saucepan in a wider pan of barely simmering water so the roux-thickened sauce stays hot without scorching or forming a skin. Stir it once before pouring.
- Broiling the steakNo cut or time is given. A 1-inch sirloin or strip steak under a preheated broiler, close to the element, runs roughly 4-5 minutes a side for medium-rare; check with a thermometer at 130F rather than by the clock. The recipe wants the steak sauced and served immediately, with no resting time.
- Six mushroomsThese were probably smaller than what we buy now. Six of today's larger ones, quartered, comes to roughly 6 oz, which suits one large steak.
- YieldThe cup of sauce suggests a single steak, perhaps 1 to 1 1/2 lb, serving two. Double the sauce for four.
A true sauce bordelaise is a red wine reduction with shallots, thyme and beef marrow, named for Bordeaux and its wine, and served in classic French kitchens as entrecôte à la bordelaise with the marrow spooned over the meat. What appears here has none of that: no wine, no marrow, no shallots, but mushrooms, a butter-flour roux and a bottled browning agent to supply the dark color the name promised. The bottled kitchen bouquet points to an American household kitchen. The result is a legitimate dish in its own right, but the label tells you more about the aspirations of the American table than about Bordeaux.