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Broiled Steak
A porter-house steak is considered, by some persons, best, others prefer the tenderloin. Beat either tender, and place on a gridiron over coals, frequently turning. Have ready a hot dish, place the steak on it, pepper and salt well, then with a knife and fork profusely butter, with one large tablespoonful fresh butter, turning and pressing it so as to absorb the butter; pepper again and set the dish over boiling water until wanted, when it will be found tender and juicy, if not cooked too long on a gridiron. One tablespoonful pepper vinegar gives this the taste of venison, and to this may be added one tablespoonful made mustard, for those who like highly seasoned food.--Mrs. S. T.
A simple charcoal-broiled steak finished in butter, with a note that the seasoning was meant to mimic game. Almost all of it translates directly; the vessels and a couple of the seasonings need a word.
- The hingeEverything depends on pulling the steak off the fire while it is still short of done. It goes on to a hot dish, gets buttered, and then rests over boiling water, where it continues to cook gently. Grill it to your target temperature and the holding step will take it past.
- Gridiron and coalsA gridiron is a hinged or footed iron grate set over a bed of burnt-down coals, not over flame. A charcoal grill at high heat with the coals raked level is the direct equivalent; a ridged cast-iron pan gets you close indoors.
- "Beat either tender"Pounding a porterhouse or tenderloin is generally unnecessary with the beef sold today. Skip it unless you are working with a genuinely tough cut, and then pound only the strip side, not the tenderloin.
- Frequently turningThe recipe asks for it, and modern grilling advice has moved back towards frequent turning for a more even interior. It need not prevent a good crust over live coals.
- Set over boiling waterThe dish goes over a pan of simmering water, a bain-marie used as a warming rest. Ten minutes is plenty; longer and the steak keeps cooking and sheds juice into the butter.
- Pepper vinegarNot a commercial hot sauce but the Southern pantry staple: hot green or red peppers steeped in vinegar, the liquid poured off as needed. Cider vinegar with a little pepper heat stands in reasonably well.
- Made mustard"Made" means mixed and ready, as opposed to dry mustard flour. Any smooth prepared mustard works.
- Butter quantity and yieldA large tablespoon of butter is generous; the recipe gives no thickness or serving count. Salt is best applied well before grilling rather than only after, as written.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by named and initialled Virginia housewives, belongs to the Southern community-cookbook tradition, which is why this steak arrives signed "Mrs. S. T." rather than in a house voice. The instruction to butter, press and hold a broiled steak over hot water is found in some American cookbooks of the period, when meat came off a coal fire in an unregulated hearth or range and the cook had no thermometer; resting it in a warm dish evened out an interior that was inevitably uneven. The suggestion that pepper vinegar gives beef "the taste of venison" reflects a real hierarchy of taste in the region, where wild game was familiar and prized, and sharp, acid seasoning was generally associated with it. Pepper vinegar itself was a fixture of Virginia and Carolina kitchens long before bottled hot sauce was widely sold, made at home from the summer pepper crop and kept on the table beside greens and meat.