No. 1340

Rump of Beef, Bourgeoise Style

Pointe de Culotte de Boeuf a la Mode Bourgeoise

Have six pounds of rump of beef, or use instead a piece of sirloin; remove all the fat and sinews, lard it, following the grain of the meat, with fat pork, and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and chopped parsley. Place the meat in an earthen bowl, with sliced carrots and onions, pour over half a pint of brandy, and let macerate eight hours in a cool place, turning it over frequently. Drain and wipe off any moisture adhering thereon, then tie, and set it in a saucepan with some melted pork. Roast it until the meat is well seized and browned, then moisten with half a bottle of white wine; reduce to half and add sufficient broth (No. 194a) to cover the meat, set round it two boned and blanched calf's feet, a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, mace, whole peppers, three carrots and two medium onions, with four cloves in them and the brandy. Boil up, then skim, continue to boil slowly or else put in the oven to simmer for two hours and a half. Drain the meat, untie and trim it, straining the gravy through a tammy, replace the meat in the saucepan with an abundant quantity of carrots cut into three-quarter of an inch balls, then blanched, and some glazed onions; pour over the stock, also some broth, so that they be entirely covered at the bottom. Boil and finish cooking slowly in the oven, drain, glaze the meat, and set it on a dish; garnish around with the small glazed onions and the carrots; strain the juice, free it from fat, and reduce until it becomes thoroughly succulent, then pour a part of it over the meat, and serve the rest separately in a sauce-boat.

← No. 1339 Rump of Beef a la Chatellier Beef No. 1341 Rump of Beef, Flemish Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is boeuf à la mode under a Delmonico's number: a larded, brandy-marinated braise finished with turned carrots and glazed onions. Nothing here is difficult, but several of the instructions assume a nineteenth-century range and a butcher who will sell you calf's feet.

The hinge: brown hard, then never boil"Roast it until the meat is well seized" means sear the tied joint in fat on the stovetop until deeply coloured on all sides — that crust is most of the finished flavour. After the liquid goes in, the pot should barely tremble; a rolling boil will squeeze the rump dry and cloud the gravy you are meant to reduce to a glaze.
Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no setting, only "put in the oven to simmer" and "finish cooking slowly in the oven." For the two-and-a-half hour stage, 300-325F in a covered pot will keep the surface at a shiver. The second stage with the carrots and onions wants the same; reckon on roughly another 45 minutes to an hour, until a skewer meets no resistance.
MeasuresHalf a pint of brandy is one US cup; half a bottle of white wine is about 12 fl oz. "Some melted pork" is rendered pork fat — lard, or the fat trimmed from the joint, enough to film the pan.
LardingLarding with strips of fat pork, run through the meat with a larding needle following the grain, was standard for lean rump. If you have no needle, bard instead: tie sheets of fatback or thin-sliced unsmoked pork belly over the outside before trussing.
Calf's feetThey are there for gelatin, not for eating, and give the finished sauce its lip-sticking body. Two split pig's trotters or a sawn veal knuckle do the same job; failing that, use a well-gelatined homemade stock and expect a slightly thinner reduction.
Broth No. 194aRanhofer's cross-reference is to his own house stock. A good unsalted beef or veal stock stands in; use unsalted, since the liquid is reduced twice and will concentrate any salt.
Macerate in the refrigeratorEight hours in a "cool place" meant a larder at cellar temperature. Marinate covered in the refrigerator, turning two or three times, and wipe the meat thoroughly dry before searing or it will steam rather than brown.
TammyA tammy is a fine worsted straining cloth. A chinois, or a fine sieve lined with damp muslin, gives the same clear gravy.
Carrots and yieldThe three-quarter-inch "balls" are carrots turned or scooped with a parisienne cutter — cosmetic, and plain thick rounds cook identically. Six pounds of trimmed rump serves eight to ten, and the dish reheats better the following day than it eats on the night.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book is essentially a working French kitchen's card index set in type — hence the numbered recipes and the cross-references to stocks elsewhere in the volume. Boeuf à la mode is one of the oldest surviving French bourgeois braises, a larded, wine-and-brandy pot roast whose name simply means beef done "in the fashion"; the qualifier bourgeoise marks it as the household version rather than a court dish, though Ranhofer's turned carrots and glazed onions quietly restore the restaurant polish. The calf's feet are the period's signal: before commercial gelatin was cheap, body in a sauce came from long contact with collagen, and the same feet that stiffened a jelly here gave the reduced gravy its shine. Cold boeuf à la mode, sliced and set in its own jelly, was chiefly a charcutier's and specialist restaurant's item.