No. 1356

Sirloin of Beef with Chicory and Souffled Sweet Potatoes

Contrefilet de Boeuf aux Endives et aux Patates Soufflees

Take the sirloin from a short loin, remove a part of the flank so as to give it an oblong shape; also a part of the fat, and all the sinews from the covered part. Lard it nicely with pieces of larding pork (No. 1 Fig. 52); cover the bottom of a baking pan with sliced fat pork, minced onions and carrots, and lay the sirloin on top, pouring over some good fat (clarified drippings), and add a little broth, set it in a hot oven and baste frequently while cooking; a few minutes before dishing up, salt the meat. When done arrange it on a dish, pour over some thick gravy (No. 405) and garnish it around with souffled sweet potatoes (No. 2831), serve separately a dishful of chiccory with cream (No. 2729), also some thick gravy (No. 405) in a sauce-boat.

← No. 1355 Sirloin of Beef with Brain Patties Beef No. 1357 Sirloin of Beef with Jerusalem Artichokes →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a butcher, a larding needle and a cook who already knows his cross-referenced sauces. Stripped of those, this is a strip loin roasted over a bed of pork fat and aromatics, which is a very good way to cook it.

What cut to buyContrefilet is the boneless strip loin — the top loin muscle from a short loin, sold today as New York strip roast. A 4 to 5 lb piece, trimmed to an even oblong with the fat cap left about 1/4 inch thick, serves eight.
"A hot oven"Probably somewhere around 425 to 450F, though Ranhofer gives no number. He roasts hot throughout; a practical compromise is 450F for 15 minutes to set the surface, then 325F until the center reads 128 to 130F for medium rare, very roughly 15 minutes per pound total. Rest 20 minutes before carving.
LardingThreading strips of hard back fat through the meat with a larding needle compensated for leaner nineteenth-century beef. Modern well-marbled strip loin does not need it. If you want the effect, bard instead: tie a sheet of caul fat or thin salt pork over the top.
The bed of pork, onion and carrotThis is a mirepoix, and it is doing two jobs — lifting the meat off the hot pan floor and building the base for the gravy. Cut the vegetables coarse rather than minced so they do not scorch at 450F, and keep the small amount of broth topped up so the pan never goes dry and bitter.
Salting at the endThe instruction to salt "a few minutes before dishing up" is usually explained by the old belief that early salt drew out the juices, though Ranhofer gives no reason. Current practice is the opposite: salt the roast generously an hour or more ahead, or the night before, so it penetrates and the surface dries for better browning.
Chicory with creamThe French endives of the title most likely means Belgian endive rather than the curly salad chicory an American reader might picture, though Ranhofer's own English heading renders it "chiccory". For a modern version: blanch 5 minutes in salted water with lemon to pull the bitterness, then braise covered in butter and a little stock before adding cream.
Souffled sweet potatoesThe twice-frying trick used for pommes soufflées: thin slices fried at about 300F until limp and blistered, drained and cooled, then dropped into 375 to 400F fat, where the trapped steam puffs them into hollow pillows. Sweet potatoes are less reliable than white; expect a fair number of failures in any batch, and salt them the moment they come out.
The gravyNo. 405 is Ranhofer's thickened brown gravy, presumably in the espagnole family. In a modern kitchen, deglaze the roasting pan, strain out the vegetables, skim the fat hard, and reduce good beef stock with it until it coats a spoon. Serve some over the meat and the rest in a boat, as directed.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades, in two stints, and The Epicurean (1894) is the book he built out of it — roughly three and a half thousand numbered items, cross-referenced so a cook could assemble a service from parts. That structure explains why this entry reads as an assembly instruction rather than a recipe: the gravy, the endive and the potatoes each live elsewhere in the book. The plate itself is classic high-French restaurant composition of the period, a roast with one green vegetable served apart and one showy potato garnish arranged around the meat. Souffled potatoes were exactly the sort of trick that justified a restaurant's prices, since they demand two fat temperatures and a cook's judgment about when the slice has gone limp enough to puff; their invention is traditionally attributed to a French railway kitchen in the 1830s, though the story is repeated far more often than it is documented. Larding, meanwhile, dates the recipe as clearly as anything in it — a routine step when beef came from working animals and needed fat added, and almost obsolete once feedlot marbling arrived.