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Beef En Miroton
534. Cut thin slices of cold roast beef, and put them into a fryingpan with some butter and six onions, turn the pan frequently, then mix a little broth, add pepper and salt, and after a few boils serve up hot. This dish is excellent and economical.
TO DRESS THE INSIDE OF A COLD SIRLOIN OF BEEF. 535. Cut out all the meat, and a little fat, in pieces as thick as the finger, and two inches long; dredge it with flour, and fry in butter of a nice brown; drain the butter from the meat, and toss it up in a rich gravy, seasoned with pepper, salt, anchovy, and shalot. Do not let it boil on any account. Before serving, add two spoonfuls of vinegar. Garnish with crimped parsley.
A leftovers dish from the age of the large joint: cold roast beef reheated with onions and a little broth. The whole point is speed, since the meat is already cooked and will toughen if it stews.
- Six onions is a lotSix onions to a few slices of beef is closer to a smothered-onion dish than a garnish. Slice them thinly; note that the original puts the beef and the onions into the butter together, so they will not colour deeply in the time given. "Turn the pan frequently" means keep them moving so they colour without catching.
- Broth quantity is unstatedThe original gives no measure. Use enough to come partway up the meat and no more, roughly 1/2 to 3/4 cup for four servings, then reduce it to a glaze rather than a soup.
- "After a few boils"Interpret this as a minute or two, just long enough to heat the beef through. Cold roast beef held at a simmer goes grey and stringy very quickly.
- Cut against the grainSlice the cold beef thinly across the grain. Thick or with-the-grain slices reheated in liquid are the main reason this kind of dish gets a poor reputation.
- YieldAbout 1 lb of cold beef and six medium onions serves four with potatoes or bread; the sauce is scant by design.
- The second recipe, on the sirloinNote the instruction not to let the gravy boil on any account, and that the two spoonfuls of vinegar go in only just before serving. The recipe gives no reason for either, though keeping already-cooked meat off a hard boil is the obvious practical effect.
- Anchovy and shalot"Anchovy" here means anchovy essence or a mashed salted fillet, not modern fish sauce; half a teaspoon of anchovy paste is a fair substitute. "Shalot" is shallot, finely chopped.
- Crimped parsleyMost likely parsley crisped for garnish, though the term is not certain: period books usually say "fried" or "crisped" parsley for parsley dropped briefly into hot fat, and use "crimped" chiefly of fish. If frying it, a few seconds is enough; it burns almost immediately.
Miroton is a French kitchen term for a dish of sliced meat reheated in an onion sauce. Reheated cold joint was a standing preoccupation of nineteenth-century English cookery books, which gave space to hashes, rissoles and dishes like this one. The compiler's remark that it is "excellent and economical" is the governing principle of the genre. The companion entry on the inside of a cold sirloin reflects the same thrift from the other direction, taking the meat carving left behind and dressing it up with anchovy, shallot and vinegar to give reheated meat a sharp, savoury lift.