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How to Cook Beefsteak
Take a thin, long-handled frying-pan, put it on the stove and heat it quite hot. In this put the pieces of steak previously pounded, but do not put a particle of butter in the frying-pan and do not salt the steak. Allow the steak to merely glaze over and then turn it quickly to the other side, turning it several times in this manner, until it is done. Four minutes is sufficient for cooking. When done, lay it on the platter, previously warmed; butter and salt, and set a moment in the hot oven. Allow the steak to heat but a moment on each side; this helps it to retain all its sweet juices, and putting on the salt at the last monent, after it is on the platter, draws out its juices.--Mrs. S.T.
A dry-pan sear for a thin, pounded steak, written before anyone had a thermometer or a heavy skillet as standard equipment. The method still works, but two of its assumptions have been overturned.
- The hinge: a truly hot panNothing here works unless the pan is hot enough that the meat glazes on contact rather than stewing in its own liquid. Preheat for several minutes over high heat until it is just short of smoking, and dry the meat well first.
- A "thin, long-handled frying-pan"A "thin, long-handled frying-pan" likely means a light sheet- or wrought-iron pan rather than heavy cast iron. A modern cast-iron or carbon-steel skillet holds heat far better and is the right substitute; a thin nonstick pan cannot be pushed hard enough.
- Salting at the endThe claim that salt draws out the juices was a commonplace of period cookbooks and is not how it works. Salt applied 40 minutes or more before cooking penetrates and seasons the interior; salt applied seconds before searing does draw surface moisture and can hinder browning. Either salt well ahead or salt at the end as written, but skip the reasoning.
- PoundingPounding was common advice in period books, and beef of the era was generally grass-fed and little aged. With a modern ribeye or strip steak it is unnecessary and costs you texture. Reserve it for round or other lean cuts, and pound to an even half inch or so.
- Four minutesCorrect only for a steak pounded thin, roughly half an inch. A one-inch steak needs 8 to 10 minutes with turns for medium-rare. Judge by feel or by an instant-read thermometer: 130F for medium-rare, 140F for medium.
- Repeated turningTurning every 30 to 60 seconds is now widely recommended for even cooking and a good crust, so this instruction has aged well; the old rule about turning steak only once has not held up to testing.
- The hot oven at the endThe recipe's "hot oven" here only warms the platter and the surface of the meat; a low oven is enough, and a minute or two at most. Longer will carry a thin steak past medium.
- SmokeA dry pan hot enough to sear will smoke. Run the extractor, open a window, and expect to wipe the stovetop afterward.
- YieldFigure 6 to 8 oz of steak per person before pounding; the recipe scales by the number of pieces the pan will hold in a single uncrowded layer.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree, was assembled from contributions by some 250 Virginia housekeepers, which is why so many entries close with initials like Mrs. S.T. rather than a full name. The insistence on withholding salt reflects a nineteenth-century theory, generally traced to Justus von Liebig's writing on meat extracts, that searing and salting governed whether a joint's "juices" were sealed in or drawn out; cooks repeated it for the better part of a century before it was tested and abandoned. The pounding, on the other hand, was straightforward necessity: American beef of the period came from working or pasture cattle, was probably not often hung, and needed mechanical help. The advice to warm the platter is worth keeping for the same reason it was given, since a cold dish on an unheated dining table undoes a fast sear in seconds.