Rump-steak, Fried
INGREDIENTS. Steaks, butter or clarified dripping.
AVERAGE COST, 1s. 2d. per lb.
Although broiling is a far superior method of cooking steaks to frying them, yet, when the cook is not very expert, the latter mode may be adopted; and, when properly done, the dish may really look very inviting, and the flavour be good.
The steaks should be cut rather thinner than for broiling, and with a small quantity of fat to each. Put some butter or clarified dripping into a frying-pan; let it get quite hot, then lay in the steaks. Turn them frequently until done, which will be in about 8 minutes, or rather more should the steaks be very thick. Serve on a very hot dish, in which put a small piece of butter and a tablespoonful of ketchup and season with pepper and salt. They should be sent to table quickly, as when cold the steaks are entirely spoiled.
TIME.-8 minutes for a medium-sized steak, rather longer for a very thick one.
SEASONABLE all the year, but not good in summer, as the meat cannot hang to get tender.
Note. Where much gravy is liked, make it in the following manner:-As soon as the steaks are done, dish them, pour a little boiling water into the frying-pan, add a seasoning of pepper and salt, a small piece of butter and a tablespoonful of Harvey's sauce or mushroom ketchup. Hold the pan over the fire for a minute or two, just let the gravy simmer, then pour on the steak, and serve.
A plain pan-fried steak from the era before non-stick and before tomato ketchup was the default. Two words in the ingredient list mean something other than what a modern reader assumes.
- "Ketchup" is not tomatoIn Beeton, an unqualified ketchup means mushroom or walnut ketchup — a thin, dark, salty, fermented condiment, closer to a mild soy sauce than to anything sweet. The note at the end says as much. Use mushroom ketchup if you have it; a splash of soy or Worcestershire is the nearest common substitute. Tomato ketchup will make the dish sweet and wrong.
- Harvey's sauceA commercial bottled sauce of the period, anchovy-based with soy, vinegar, garlic and spice. It is no longer widely sold. Worcestershire sauce is the nearest widely available equivalent and can be used in the same quantity.
- Clarified drippingBeef dripping with the meat solids and water strained out, so it takes a higher heat before burning. Clarified butter, ghee or plain beef dripping all do the same job. Whole butter is more likely to scorch at frying heat, though Beeton offers it as an alternative.
- Cut the steak thinnerThe instruction to cut thinner than for broiling matters. This method relies on constant contact with the hot pan, and a modern 1½-inch steakhouse cut will still be very rare inside at eight minutes. Something around ¾ inch suits the method better.
- Turning frequently is correctIgnore any received wisdom about turning a steak only once. Frequent turning gives a more even gradient from crust to centre. Eight minutes of this in a hot pan will take a ¾-inch steak to medium or beyond; pull it earlier for rare.
- The pan gravyThe note describes deglazing. Boiling water is what a Victorian kitchen had to hand; beef stock, or stock with a little of the wine you are drinking, gives more. Loosen the browned residue, whisk in the butter off direct heat so it emulsifies rather than splits, and pour over immediately.
- The hot dishNot decorative fussiness. A thin fried steak on a cold plate cools fast and the fat congeals; Beeton wants it sent to table at once rather than rested. Warm the serving dish in a low oven while you fry.
- "Not good in summer"This refers to hanging — dry-ageing carcasses in a cool larder, which was impractical in warm weather without refrigeration. Modern beef is aged under controlled conditions year round, so the seasonal caveat no longer applies.
- YieldThe original gives none. Reckon 6–8 oz of rump per person as a main course.
Rump steak was the everyday steak of the Victorian table — cheaper than sirloin, firmer, and with enough marbling to survive a hot pan. Beeton's opening concession, that broiling is superior but frying will serve "when the cook is not very expert", is characteristic of the book's audience: young middle-class housewives directing one or two servants of uncertain skill. Broiling meant managing an open coal fire and a gridiron, a genuine craft; a frying-pan on the range was the forgiving option. The bottled sauces named here — Harvey's, mushroom ketchup — belong to a British enthusiasm for dark, savoury, anchovy-and-soy condiments that was already well established in the eighteenth century and outlived most of their makers. Worcestershire sauce, first sold commercially in the 1830s, is the survivor of that family. The costing of 1s. 2d. per pound is the kind of detail that made Beeton's Book of Household Management useful as an accounting tool as much as a cookbook.