No. 1313

Baron of Beef a la St. George

Selle de Boeuf a la St. George

The baron of beef weighs about one hundred and fifty pounds. It is the saddle of beef cut from the hip of a young and tender ox as far down as the second rib, this being pared and the thinnest part covered with slices of fat so as to have the meat of uniform thickness and cooked alike throughout. It takes about five hours to cook a baron of beef in a baker's brick oven, the best to use for large pieces of this description, after being cooked they should be put in a heater or warm place, for about two hours, to finish cooking slowly. When cooked arrange it on a large dish, garnishing on the edges with shavings of horseradish (No. 98) and the ends with Yorkshire pudding (No. 770). Serve thickened gravy (No. 405) well skimmed and strained through a fine sieve, in a separate sauce-boat, also some baked potatoes.

← No. 1312 Whitefish, Pimentade Sauce Beef No. 1314 Breast or Brisket of Beef a la Florence →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is describing a banquet centerpiece, not a family dinner: a 150-pound joint roasted in a commercial bread oven and paraded to the table. The method scales down intelligently, but almost nothing about the original quantities applies to a home kitchen.

What a baron actually is hereIn most English usage a baron of beef is the two sirloins left joined at the backbone. Ranhofer defines it differently — the whole saddle from the hip down to the second rib, which is why it runs to 150 lb. No retail butcher will cut this without weeks of notice and a whole animal to work from.
Scaling it downThe nearest domestic equivalent is a three- to four-rib standing roast, 8-10 lb, or a whole beef short loin if your butcher will cut one. Treat the fat-covering instruction as barding: tie a sheet of beef fat or caul over the thin end so the tapered section does not overcook before the thick end is done.
The baker's brick ovenA brick oven holds a large mass of stored heat and cooks largely by radiation, with the heat falling off over a long bake; Ranhofer says only that it is 'the best to use for large pieces' and does not say whether the bread had already come out. He gives no temperatures, so any figures are a modern guess: something like 450F for 20-30 minutes to color the surface, then 300-325F for the remainder.
Cook to temperature, not to the clockFive hours applies to a joint the size of a hearthrug. For an 8-10 lb rib roast, expect roughly 2 to 2.5 hours at the temperatures above. Pull it at 120-125F in the center for rare, 130F for medium rare; a large roast will climb several degrees while it rests.
The two hours in the heaterRanhofer's 'heater or warm place' is a warm holding spot; he gives no temperature, and a modern holding cabinet at 140-150F is one reading of it. He says the point is to 'finish cooking slowly', and on a joint this size the long hold would also let heat equalize toward the center. Scaled down, a rest of 30-45 minutes under loose foil does similar work; don't carve straight out of the oven.
The cross-referencesNo. 98 is the horseradish preparation the recipe calls for in shavings. No. 770 is Yorkshire pudding. No. 405 is Ranhofer's thickened gravy; a modern jus built from the roasting-pan fond and good stock serves the same purpose, but skim and strain it as instructed.
YieldThe original feeds a banquet hall — a joint this size would serve well over a hundred. An 8-10 lb rib roast serves 8 to 10 generously.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York. A baron of beef is an English conceit — an oven being the best to use for a joint of such size, roasted at a commercial bakehouse and carried in whole as spectacle — and its appearance on an American French-language menu shows how completely Delmonico's absorbed English ceremonial cooking when the occasion called for it. The garnish makes the point: horseradish and Yorkshire pudding are not French, and Ranhofer serves them without apology. The name is generally associated with St. George's Day and the English benevolent societies that held their annual dinners at Delmonico's, though Ranhofer, who titled dishes freely after patrons, guests and occasions, gives no explanation of his own.