Mode
5 pounds beef from the round. Lardoons of pork. Salt and pepper. Flour. Water. 1/2 cup turnip. 1/2 cup carrot 1/2 cup onion 1/2 cup turnin Bay leaf Sprig of parsley Make eight or ten deep incisions in the meat and press into them lardoons of salt pork. Brown the meat in pork fat or drip-
This is a fragment of a larded braised beef — the page breaks off mid-sentence after browning, and the ingredient list is missing the meat itself and the braising liquid. What survives tells you the method clearly enough.
- What the title means"Mode" is short for boeuf à la mode, the classic French braise of a larded beef round with root vegetables. Assume a 3-4 lb bottom round, rump or chuck roast."Turnin" in the ingredient list is a typo for turnip.
- LardoonsStrips of salt pork about 1/4 inch square and as long as the meat is thick, threaded into deep incisions with a larding needle or pushed in with the handle of a wooden spoon. A lean cut benefits from the added fat: it is what keeps a long-braised round from drying out.
- Salt porkCommercial salt pork can be very salty. Blanch the lardoons in simmering water for two or three minutes and pat dry before larding, and hold back on salting the braise until the end.
- The missing liquidA mode braise takes roughly 2 cups of stock, or stock and red wine, added after browning — enough to come a third of the way up the meat, not to cover it. Many period versions also add a split calf's foot or a little gelatin for body.
- Browning fat"Pork fat or drip-" is dripping: rendered beef or bacon fat. Any neutral high-heat fat works; brown the meat hard on all sides in a heavy Dutch oven before the vegetables go in.
- The vegetablesHalf a cup each of carrot, onion and turnip is a flavor base, not a garnish — cut small, they will collapse over the braise. If you want vegetables to serve alongside, add a second batch cut in large pieces during the last 45 minutes.
- Oven and timeThe page breaks off before any cooking direction, so this is a modern reconstruction: covered, at 325F, a 3-4 lb larded round wants about 3 to 3 1/2 hours, until a fork slides in with no resistance. On the stovetop, keep it at a bare simmer for the same span.
- Yield and servingServes six to eight. Strain and reduce the braising liquid for a sauce; the dish is traditionally as good cold in its own jelly the next day, sliced thin.
Boeuf a la mode — beef "in the fashion" — was one of the most thoroughly naturalized French dishes in American cookery, appearing in English-language cookbooks as "beef a la mode" from the eighteenth century onward. The defining technique is larding: cooks inserted strips of pork fat into lean cuts to keep them moist, and larding needles were common kitchen equipment.