No. 1354

Sirloin of Beef a la Thieblin

Contrefilet de Boeuf a la Thieblin

Have the sirloin prepared and cooked as explained in the de Lesseps (No. 1352). Dress and glaze it, garnishing each side with red cabbage, prepared as explained below, and the ends with Sarah potatoes (No. 2802). Strain and skim the fat from the gravy, reduce it and serve it in a separate sauce-boat. Cut a red cabbage into quarters, remove the hard center, and shave the balance fine; blanch, then drain and put it into a saucepan with butter, salt pepper, bay leaf and a medium sized onion cut in one-eighth of an inch squares; let cook slowly for three hours, stirring it several times in the meanwhile with a spoon. Take out the bay leaf and add a piece of butter and some slices of apples previously cooked in butter.

← No. 1353 Sirloin of Beef a la Perrin Beef No. 1355 Sirloin of Beef with Brain Patties →

For the Modern Kitchen

A composed roast in the Delmonico's manner: the beef is the plain part, the red cabbage is where the work is. Ranhofer writes in cross-references, so the page assumes you have three other numbered recipes open beside it.

What the cut isContrefilet is the boneless sirloin — the strip loin, sold today as top loin or New York strip roast. The recipe gives no weight; a piece of around 4-5 lb would serve eight to ten.
The missing cross-referencesNo. 1352 (de Lesseps) supplies the cooking method and No. 2802 the Sarah potatoes; neither is on this page. Any straightforward roast will carry the dish — sear hot, then finish at 325F to an internal 125-130F for rare to medium-rare, and rest 20 minutes before carving.
"Glaze it"This means brushing the rested roast with reduced glace de viande until it shines, not sugar or a broiler pass. The strained, skimmed, reduced pan gravy in the sauce-boat is a separate thing from the glaze.
Keeping the cabbage redThe hinge of the whole recipe. Red cabbage pigment turns blue-grey in alkaline or neutral conditions; the original relies on the apples alone, which is thin insurance. A splash of cider vinegar or dry red wine early in the braise holds the colour and is entirely in period for this preparation.
The blanchingKeep it brief — a minute in boiling water, then drain. A long blanch leaches both colour and flavour into water you are about to throw away.
Three hoursA long, slow simmer of the kind a nineteenth-century range suited. Finely shaved cabbage in a modern heavy pan over low heat, or in a 300F oven, is tender in 60-90 minutes; check at an hour and add a spoonful of water if it dries.
The finishThe second piece of butter goes in off the heat and should not be cooked further — it is there for gloss. Cook the apple slices separately in butter until just short of collapsing, then fold them through so they stay in pieces.
Sarah potatoesA garnish potato given elsewhere in the book (No. 2802); the form is not stated here. Any neat fried potato — small croquettes, or halved and browned new potatoes — fills the ends of the platter without argument.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of roughly thirty years — service that was in fact interrupted — as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is organised as a working reference: nearly every dish points at another by number, because the kitchen brigade was expected to know them. Dishes named à la someone at Delmonico's were usually compliments to patrons, public figures or the occasion of a particular dinner — the neighbouring No. 1352 honours Ferdinand de Lesseps of the Suez Canal, and Thieblin may be a reference to Nicholas Léon Thiéblin, the French-born journalist who worked in New York in the same decades, though this is only a guess and nothing in the book documents the connection. The garnish is the tell of the period's cosmopolitanism: slow-braised red cabbage with butter, bay and buttered apples is a Central European and Alsatian pairing, set here beside a French roast and a fried potato for an American dining room.