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Broiled Beefsteak
The best cuts of beef for broiling are porterhouse, sirloin, cross-cut of rump steaks, and second and third cuts from top of round. Porterhouse and sirloin cuts are the most expensive, on account of the great loss in bone and fat, although price per pound is about the same as for cross-cut of rump. Round steak is very juicy, but, having coarser fibre, is not as tender. Steaks should be cut at least an inch thick, and from that to two and one-half inches. The flank end of sirloin steak should be removed before cooking. It may be put in soup kettle, or lean part may be chopped and utilized for meat cakes, fat tried out and clarified for shortening. To Broil Steak. Wipe with a cloth wrung out of cold water, and trim off superfluous fat. With some of the fat grease a wire broiler, place meat in broiler (having fat edge next to handle), and broil over a clear fire, turning every ten seconds for the first minute, that surface may be well seared, thus preventing escape of juices. After the first minute, turn occasionally until well cooked on both sides. Steak cut one and one-half inches thick will take ten minutes, if liked rare; twelve to fifteen minutes, if well done. Remove to hot platter, spread with butter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Beefsteak with Maître d'Hôtel Butter Serve Broiled Steak with Maître d'Hôtel Butter.
Fannie Farmer's instructions assume a hinged wire broiler held over live coals, which is closer to a modern charcoal grill than to an oven broiler. The method still works; two of its assumptions do not.
- Searing does not seal in juicesThe claim that rapid turning "prevents escape of juices" was standard teaching in 1896 and has since been disproved -- seared meat loses as much moisture as unseared. Turn often anyway: it browns evenly and cooks faster, which is the real benefit.
- "A clear fire"Coals burned down past the flaming stage, glowing and ash-covered, with no smoke or flare. On a gas grill, high direct heat with the lid up; under an oven broiler, the top rack with the element fully preheated for at least 10 minutes.
- Judge by temperature, not the clockTen minutes for a 1.5-inch steak is a reasonable guide over hot coals, but thickness, fire and starting temperature vary too much to trust it. Pull at 125F for rare, 130-135F for medium-rare, 145F for medium; the center climbs a few degrees while resting.
- The cuts, translated"Second and third cuts from top of round" are close to what a market now labels top round or London broil: lean, beefy, and genuinely chewy. "Cross-cut of rump" is a rump steak, a different cut, which Farmer prices about the same per pound as porterhouse. Porterhouse and sirloin need no translation.
- Salt earlier than she saysFarmer salts only after cooking. Current practice is to salt the surface 40 minutes to several hours ahead, or immediately before it hits the heat; either loses less moisture than salting shortly before the end.
- Rest before servingThe recipe moves the steak straight to a hot platter with butter. Give it 5 to 10 minutes loosely tented -- the butter still melts, and the juices redistribute instead of running out at the first cut.
- "Fat tried out and clarified"Rendering the trimmed sirloin fat over low heat gives beef tallow, which keeps refrigerated for months and is excellent for frying potatoes. "Tried out" simply means slowly melted from the tissue.
- Maitre d'hotel butterElsewhere in the book: softened butter beaten with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper, then chilled. A slice set on the hot steak is the finish the recipe intends.
- YieldFigure 8 to 12 oz of bone-in porterhouse or 6 to 8 oz of boneless steak per person; a 2-inch porterhouse serves two or three.
Broiling in the American kitchen of the 1890s was in transition. The hinged wire broiler assumed here belongs to the coal or wood range, where you lifted a lid and held the meat over the firebox -- and Farmer's insistence on "a clear fire" is a reminder that a smoky or flaming one would coat the steak in soot. What makes the entry worth reading is not the technique but the economics: the opening paragraph is a lesson in cost per edible pound, weighing the bone and fat waste of a porterhouse against the cheaper, coarser rump and round. That is the Boston Cooking School's whole character -- Farmer was training young women in domestic science, and a steak was an occasion to teach butchery, thrift and the use of every trimming, down to rendering the fat for shortening and chopping the sirloin flank into meat cakes. The searing-seals-in-juices doctrine she repeats was widely attributed to the German chemist Justus von Liebig and passed through nearly every English-language cookbook of the period before twentieth-century testing dismantled it.