No. 1336

Round Buttock Top, Parisian Style

Noix de Boeuf a la Mode de Paris

Lard a round top of beef of from ten to twelve pounds with large lardings of pork, season with pepper, nutmeg and chopped parsley; line a brazier (stewpan) with slices of pork, set the meat on top, and put the pot without its cover into a hot oven. When the meat is well colored, moisten with some broth (No. 194a), adding a garnished bunch of parsley with thyme, bay leaf, and a clove of garlic. It will take from five to six hours to cook, according to the size of the piece of meat, and after it is well done, drain off the gravy, strain it through a fine sieve, remove all the fat, and reduce it in order to obtain a rich gravy; take away one third of this. Add to the remaining two-thirds, a puree of tomatoes (No. 730), also some espagnole sauce (No. 414). Dress the beef on a dish, surround it with small carrots cut pear-shaped, and previously blanched and cooked in a very little white broth (No. 194a), so that they are reduced to a glaze, also some small glazed onions. Pour some of the gravy over the meat, and serve the rest in a separate sauce-bowl. A sirloin of beef can be used instead of the round top.

← No. 1335 Round Buttock Top Baked Beef No. 1337 Rump of Beef a la Boucicault →

For the Modern Kitchen

A classic braise disguised by Ranhofer's cross-reference system: the beef itself is straightforward, while the garnish and sauce send you to three other numbered recipes. Substitutions for those are easy enough if you are not cooking the whole book.

The cutNoix de boeuf is the "nut" of the round — roughly what a US butcher sells as top round or knuckle, a lean solid muscle. Ten to twelve pounds is a very large piece; a 4-5 lb piece behaves much the same way and should cut the cooking time down considerably. Ranhofer's alternative, a sirloin, is fattier and more forgiving.
Larding"Large lardings of pork" means strips of back fat drawn through the meat with a larding needle, not bacon laid on top. It is the whole point with a cut this lean, and there is no real substitute; if you cannot lard, use a chuck or brisket instead and accept a different dish.
BrazierA brazier here is a heavy lidded braising pan — a Dutch oven is the direct equivalent. The pork slices lining the base keep the meat off the metal and start the fond.
Oven temperaturesRanhofer specifies only a "hot oven" for the initial uncovered colouring, and gives no temperature or timing after that. In a modern oven something in the region of 425-450F will colour the meat; thereafter the heat wants to come well down for the five to six hours he allows, so the liquid barely trembles rather than boils.
Liquid level"Moisten with some broth" implies part-way rather than submerged; Ranhofer does not specify a level, and turning the piece once or twice during the hours is a modern addition rather than his instruction.
The sauce shortcutsNo. 730 is a plain tomato purée and No. 414 is espagnole, a brown sauce built on veal stock and roux. In place of espagnole, reduce the strained braising liquid further and thicken lightly with a brown roux or a beurre manié; add tomato purée sparingly, a few spoonfuls, or it dominates.
Glazing the garnishRanhofer blanches the pear-shaped carrots and cooks them, with the small onions, in a very little white broth until it reduces to a shining glaze. Butter and a pinch of sugar are a common modern addition rather than his. Watch the last minutes — the glaze catches quickly.
Resting and carvingLet the beef sit 20 minutes off the heat before slicing, and carve across the grain in thin slices; a lean round cut thick and hot will seem dry however well it was braised.
YieldRanhofer gives none. A twelve-pound round with its garnish serves 20-25 as a course in a long dinner; the smaller 4-5 lb version feeds eight generously.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as an encyclopaedia of what a first-class American restaurant kitchen was expected to know — hence the numbered cross-references, which assume a brigade with stock, espagnole and tomato purée already standing. Noix de boeuf à la mode is a French bourgeois dish of some antiquity: beef larded, braised whole for the better part of a day, and served with glazed root vegetables. What Ranhofer adds in the "mode de Paris" version is the restaurant finish — the braising liquid strained, defatted, reduced and then split, one third held back and the rest turned into a proper sauce with tomato and espagnole. The pear-shaped carrots are pure period display.