No. 1352

Sirloin of Beef a la de Lesseps

Contrefilet de Boeuf a la de Lesseps

Prepare a piece of sirloin as follows; Remove the sirloin from a middle short rib, remove also the fat and nerves, pare it to an oblong shape, roll it over on itself as shown in Fig. 307, after larding it with large lardons of fat pork (No. 1, Fig. 52). Cover the bottom of a braziere with slices of fat pork, lay the meat on top and moisten to three-quarters of its hight with mirepoix stock (No. 419). Boil, then push the braziere into the oven to let cook for about three hours, basting it several times in the meanwhile, also turning it around while cooking. After the sirloin is cooked, glaze it over and strain the stock through a very fine sieve; skim off the fat carefully and reduce the stock with a little espagnole sauce (No. 414) and Madeira wine. Dish up the sirloin and garnish around with one pound of rice, saute it in a quarter of a pound of butter; moisten to two-thirds higher than the rice itself with unskimmed broth strained through a silk sieve; season well with salt, a dash of cayenne, powdered saffron, nutmeg and sweet Spanish pepper. Leave the rice in the oven to cook for twenty minutes, and just when ready to serve toss it up thoroughly with a fork; now dress it on each side of the sirloin and garnish the ends with stuffed tomatoes (No. 2842). Serve the reduced stock in a separate sauce-boat.

← No. 1351 Sirloin of Beef a la Degrange Beef No. 1353 Sirloin of Beef a la Perrin →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional brigade with a stock pot always going and a numbered reference for every component. The dish is a long oven braise of a tender cut, served with a saffron pilaf; the two parts can be timed independently.

Contrefilet, and what to buyThe contrefilet is the boneless strip loin taken off the short ribs of beef "middle" — what an American butcher sells as strip loin or New York roast. Ask for a 4-5 lb boneless piece, trimmed of fat and silverskin, and have it rolled and tied at even intervals rather than trying to roll a loose loin yourself.
The braziereA braziere is simply a deep, heavy, lidded braising pan. A Dutch oven or a covered roasting pan of a size that lets the liquid come three-quarters up the meat is what is wanted; too wide a pan and you will need far more stock than the recipe intends.
Mirepoix stock and espagnoleNo. 419 is Ranhofer's mirepoix stock, a brown stock cooked with a mirepoix of aromatic vegetables and raw ham; No. 414 is espagnole, brown stock thickened with brown roux. Substitute a good dark veal or beef stock, and for the finish reduce the strained braising liquid with Madeira and a spoonful of demi-glace until it coats a spoon.
Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no oven heat; it says only to boil the liquid and push the braziere into the oven. Set 300-325F: the liquid should barely tremble under the lid, never boil, or the outside of the loin shreds before the centre gives.
Three hours is period cookery, not an errorA strip loin braised three hours comes out fully cooked through and fork-tender in the nineteenth-century manner, not pink. If you want it rare, this is the wrong recipe and the wrong cut treatment — the whole point here is the larding, which threads fat through meat that will be cooked well past medium.
LardingThe large lardons of No. 1 are strips of firm fatback pushed lengthwise through the loin with a larding needle. Cured salt pork or unsmoked fatback works; blanch salt pork briefly if it is heavily salted. Barding the outside with fat and omitting the interior lardons is a workable shortcut, though it will not baste the centre.
The riceOne pound of rice sauteed in 4 oz butter, moistened with broth to two-thirds above the depth of the rice — the recipe measures by depth in the pan rather than by a fixed ratio, so judge it by eye. Twenty minutes in the oven, then rest it a few minutes before forking it up. The seasoning is saffron, cayenne, nutmeg and sweet Spanish pepper, i.e. paprika.
GlazingTo glaze, brush the cooked meat with a few spoonfuls of the reduced braising liquid and return it to a hot oven for a minute or two, repeating once or twice until it takes on a lacquer. Do this after resting, not before, or the crust dulls.
YieldA 4-5 lb loin with a pound of rice and stuffed tomatoes serves ten to twelve as the roast course of a long menu, or eight generously as a main dish.

A Little History

The name honours Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French diplomat and promoter behind the Suez Canal and later the failed French attempt at Panama, and it belongs to the run of dishes in The Epicurean named after guests and celebrities of Delmonico's, where Charles Ranhofer was chef from the 1860s to the 1890s. De Lesseps was received in New York with considerable ceremony while campaigning for the Panama scheme in the early 1880s, and a dish christened for him would have been an ordinary courtesy of the house; as to why the roast is flanked by saffron rice and stuffed tomatoes, Ranhofer, as always, explains nothing. The method itself is standard mid-century French practice: a tender loin larded, rolled, braised on a bed of pork fat in mirepoix stock, and served with its own liquid reduced with Madeira ¡ the sort of construction that made a Delmonico's menu, where a single entree drew on three or four numbered preparations elsewhere in the book.