No. 1318

Kulash a la Finnoise

Guylas a la Finnoise

Cut a pound of trimmed tenderloin of beef in inch squares, also two ounces of one-eighth of an inch squares of onions. Put four ounces of butter into a saute-pan, and when hot, add first the onions and then the beef; season with salt and paprika (a Hungarian pepper), moisten with a little good gravy (No. 404), and cook for one hour and a half, adding a little espagnole sauce (No. 414).

Another way is to use a pound of lean tenderloin, cut in inch squares, half a pound of the breast of bacon cut in half inch squares, a pound of potatoes cut in half inch squares, a quarter of a pound of onions in one-eighth of an inch squares, frying them in half a pound of butter. Put in first the beef, then the potatoes, salt, pepper, and spice, add a pint of good gravy (No. 404), cover hermetically, and cook slowly for one hour and a half.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional brigade with stockpots already going, so two of the ingredients here are cross-references to other numbered recipes. Sort those out first and the dish is a straightforward braise.

The cut is the hingeTenderloin held for an hour and a half will be dry and grainy, whatever the liquid around it. Chuck, shin or beef cheek in the same inch dice gives the gelatinous result the long cooking is clearly aiming at; if you want to keep the tenderloin, cook it in minutes and finish with the sauce made separately.
No. 404 and No. 414"Good gravy" is Ranhofer's brown stock reduction, not a thickened pan gravy. Use a strong unsalted beef stock. Espagnole is the classic brown sauce of stock, mirepoix and browned roux; a couple of spoonfuls of a well-reduced stock or a little demi-glace does the same work.
ButterHalf a pound of butter to a pound of beef in the second version is period restaurant practice and will leave the dish swimming. Two ounces is ample for browning, particularly since the bacon renders its own fat.
PaprikaThe parenthetical gloss suggests paprika was still unfamiliar enough to Ranhofer's readers in 1894 to need explaining. Use sweet Hungarian paprika, add it off the heat or with the liquid rather than into hot butter, where it scorches and turns bitter.
"Cover hermetically"Seal the pan tightly; a sheet of parchment under a well-fitting lid is enough. The point is that almost no liquid should evaporate over the hour and a half.
"Cook slowly"A bare simmer on the stovetop, or a 300F oven. If it bubbles briskly the pint of stock will reduce to nothing well before the meat is tender.
The potatoesIn the second version they will disintegrate over ninety minutes and thicken the whole thing into a stew. That may be what is wanted; if you prefer them intact, add them for the last thirty to forty minutes.
YieldA pound of beef serves two generously or three modestly. The second version, with bacon and potatoes, stretches to four.

A Little History

Gulyás began as Hungarian herdsmen's food -- gulyás means cowherd -- and reached fashionable American and French kitchens in the later nineteenth century along with the paprika that defines it, which Ranhofer still felt obliged to explain as "a Hungarian pepper." The "a la Finnoise" of the title is the kind of loose geographic label the grand-restaurant repertoire attached freely: the dish is Hungarian in origin, and the Nordic tag most likely signals the second version's bacon and potatoes, a northern peasant combination, rather than any documented Finnish source. Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is his complete working system, which is why nearly every recipe in it points sideways to a numbered stock or sauce made elsewhere in the book. The two versions given here reflect that world neatly: one is a refined à la carte plate built on espagnole, the other a heartier family-style braise from the same pan.