No. 1317

Edgebone or Aitchbone, Boiled Cream Horseradish Sauce

Quasi de Boeuf bouilli Sauce Raifort a la Creme

Edgebone or aitchbone, is a bone of the rump which in dressed beef presents itself in view edgewise; it is also called aitchbone.

Have a piece of the edgebone weighing twelve pounds; put it in a soup pot capable of holding twice the quantity the size of the meat. Cover with some good broth (No. 194a), place it on the hot fire to bring to a boil, salt to taste, skim well, and add two pounds of carrots, or four medium sized ones, two fine turnips, a four ounce onion stuck with two cloves, six leeks, half a medium sized parsnip, a small handful of celery and one cabbage. Simmer slowly for three or four hours, and when the meat is cooked, drain and dish it up, laying the carrots and turnips cut into pieces, also the cabbage nicely trimmed, around the sides, and green sprigs of parsley at the ends. Serve separately a cream horseradish sauce (No. 478).

← No. 1316 Corned Round Bottom, Top, English Style Beef No. 1318 Kulash a la Finnoise →

For the Modern Kitchen

A plain boiled beef dinner scaled for a hotel dining room: twelve pounds of bone-in rump, a pot of vegetables, and a cold-ish cream horseradish alongside. Almost everything that needs adjusting is a matter of scale and of the two cross-references Ranhofer expects you to look up.

The cutThe aitchbone is the pelvic bone at the hip end of the round, sold today as part of the rump or bottom round; most butchers will need to order it, and many now bone it out entirely. A boneless rump of about 3 lb behaves the same way and feeds six to eight rather than a dining room.
Scale it downTwelve pounds of beef wants a pot of at least 12 quarts and more broth than most home kitchens keep. Quarter the whole recipe: about 3 lb meat, one medium carrot, half a turnip, a small onion stuck with a clove or two, two leeks, a piece of parsnip, a few celery ribs, a quarter of a cabbage.
No. 194aThe called-for "good broth" is one of Ranhofer's basic stock recipes. Unsalted or lightly salted beef stock works; if you use commercial stock, cut it with water by half or the finished liquid will be aggressively salty once it reduces.
No. 478, the sauceThe cross-reference is to his cream horseradish sauce; a sauce of that name is grated fresh horseradish folded into thick cream with a little vinegar and sugar, served cool. Prepared horseradish drained of its brine and stirred into lightly whipped cream with salt and a little vinegar gives the same effect. Do not heat it; horseradish loses its pungency quickly with heat.
Simmer, do not boilThis is the hinge. Held at a rolling boil, rump goes stringy and the broth turns cloudy; kept at 180-185F, bare movement on the surface, the connective tissue melts and the meat slices cleanly. Skim thoroughly in the first ten minutes, before the scum breaks up and disperses.
Vegetable timingThree to four hours will reduce carrots, turnips and cabbage to pulp. Add them for the last 45 minutes, the cabbage for the last 20, and lift each out as it is done if you want them presentable on the platter.
DonenessA 3 lb piece takes roughly 2.5 to 3 hours; go by feel rather than the clock, a skewer should meet no resistance. Rest the meat in a little of the hot broth while you arrange the vegetables so it does not dry at the surface.
The broth is the second dishStrain and degrease what is left. In a kitchen of this size it would likely have been put back to use; at home it makes a clear soup for the following day.

A Little History

Boiled beef with a root-vegetable garnish is among the plainer things in The Epicurean (1894), Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its presence there is telling: even a restaurant famous for elaborate garnishes and French titles kept a solid English-style boiled joint on the books. The word aitchbone is generally traced to Middle English nache, buttock, from Latin natis; "a nachebone" was misheard as "an aitchbone," and butchers separately explained the name by the bone's H-like shape, while Ranhofer explains the variant "edgebone" by the fact that the bone shows edgewise in a dressed side of beef. The cut is a working-kitchen economy joint, tough, gelatinous and cheap, which is why it belongs to the boiling pot rather than the roasting spit; horseradish beaten into cream is its standard English partner, a pairing already old by the time this book was printed.