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Salt and Pepper (Have a bright hot fire place)
Have a bright hot fire, place the gridiron over the fire to warm; grease the bars with a piece of fat, and lay the steak on it, let it cook for ten or fifteen minutes, turning it by sticking a fork into the fat, not into the meat. Mix the butter, parsley, lemon-juice, salt and pepper on a plate, into a little pat of green butter. When the steak is cooked put it on to a hot dish, and spread this pat of green butter over it.
This is a grilled steak finished with maître d'hôtel butter — the whole point is the pat of cold seasoned butter melting into the hot meat. Note that the quantities live in the book's ingredient list, not in this method, so you are working from proportions rather than measurements.
- The green butterThe book's own quantities are in its ingredient list, not in this method; as a working guess, something like 2 oz softened butter to a tablespoon of finely chopped parsley, a teaspoon of lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Work it on a plate with a knife as directed, then chill it firm so it sits on the steak as a pat instead of sliding off as oil.
- The gridironA gridiron is a grated iron rack set over live coals. A ridged cast-iron grill pan preheated until it smokes, or a charcoal grill, gives the same searing bar contact; a flat pan will work but you lose the char lines the recipe assumes.
- "A bright hot fire"This means coals burned down past flame to glowing red rather than a smoky, flaming fire. On gas, that is the burner at full heat with the pan given five minutes to load up.
- Never pierce the leanTurning by hooking the fork into the fat rim is the instruction that matters most here. Puncturing the muscle lets the juices run out onto the coals.
- Ten to fifteen minutesThat timing implies a steak considerably thicker than a modern one, though the recipe names neither cut nor thickness. A modern 1-inch steak wants roughly 3-4 minutes a side for medium-rare; judge by feel or an instant-read thermometer at 130F rather than by the clock.
- Rest before saucingThe recipe sends the steak straight onto a hot dish. Give it five minutes off the heat first, then apply the butter — it will still melt, and the meat will hold its juices when carved.
- YieldThe recipe gives no weight or number of servings. Warm the serving dish as instructed; cold china kills both the butter and the meat.
Butter mashed with parsley and lemon is beurre maître d'hôtel, one of the small compound butters codified in nineteenth-century French professional kitchens and absorbed wholesale into British high-class cookery, where it appears on grilled steaks, chops and fish alike. A grilled steak produces no pan juices to build a sauce from, so the sauce is made cold in advance and melts to order. The insistence on turning the meat by the fat rather than spearing the lean is a standing refrain in Victorian cookery books, dating from an era when steaks were cooked over open coals and every drop of escaping juice announced itself in a flare of flame.