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Beefsteak with Ale
When steak is grilled, broiled or fried to your entire satisfaction put a small piece of butter on it and pour over all 1/2 glass of good pale ale, kneading the steak gently until the ale mixes with the juices into a salubrious gravy. This British-Canadian style of making a steak all the juicier seeped in across the border. And the French- Canadians have contributed their Gallic style of cooking en papillote-in paper-to both camp and kitchen-but you don't do a steak like that.
A finishing sauce rather than a dish in itself: butter and ale worked into the resting juices of a cooked steak. The whole thing takes under a minute, and the only real decision is where you do it.
- "1/2 glass" of aleNo standard glass is meant here; on the usual reckoning of a glass this would be somewhere in the region of 3 to 4 fl oz. Begin with a smaller pour and add more only if the meat is dry.
- Choose the ale carefully"Good pale ale" here probably points to a British-style ale less aggressively hopped than a modern American pale ale or IPA, which can turn the juices harsh and resinous as they concentrate.
- "Kneading" the steakPress and rock the steak with the back of a fork or a spoon so the ale, butter and released juices emulsify around it. It is not tenderising; it is agitating the liquid enough to thicken slightly.
- Do it on a warm surfaceOn a cold plate the butter seizes and the ale stays thin and beery. Use a warmed platter, or a shallow pan pulled just off the heat, so the mixture stays fluid without boiling off.
- Rest the meat while you workThis step doubles as the rest: a short spell of gentle pressing and turning lets the interior settle, and the juices that would otherwise be lost go into the gravy.
- Salt at the endSeason the finished gravy only after tasting; salting before tasting tends to overshoot, particularly if the steak was already seasoned before grilling.
- YieldEnough sauce for one large steak or two modest ones. Scale the butter at roughly a tablespoon per steak and increase the ale proportionally.
- The en papillote asideThe closing remark is commentary, not instruction. The author is explicitly saying not to wrap a steak in paper — parchment cookery steams, and steam is the opposite of what a crusted steak needs.