No. 1362

Porterhouse Steak

Bifteck d'Aloyau

Select a good, fleshy middle short loin, the meat being pink and very tender. Cut slices an inch and three-quarters thick, in the tenderloin and sirloin, sawing away the spine bone from the rib. Cut off the fat and sinews, and trim it nicely to the shape of the accompanying plate; after trimming it should weigh two pounds and a quarter. Season with salt and pepper, and baste over with oil or clarified butter, then broil on a slow, well sustained fire for fifteen minutes if desired rare, eighteen minutes if properly done, and well cooked, twenty minutes, only turning it over once in the middle of cooking. When finished, lay the steak on a very hot dish, covering it with maitre d'hotel butter (No. 581).

It is easy to find out when the meat is done. Press lightly in the center with the first finger, and if the meat be soft, and offering a slight resistance, then it is cooked rare; to have it done properly it must be firm, without resisting as much to the touch; and to be well done, it must be firm, and offer resistance. Practice alone can teach how to cook by the touch, which differs according to the quality of the meat.

← No. 1361 Hamburg Steak a la Tartare Beef No. 1363 Double Porterhouse Steak a la Sanford →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is describing a bone-in short loin steak nearly two inches thick, cooked over live coals and judged entirely by hand. Most of the instruction still holds; the parts that need translating are the cut, the fire and the finish.

The cutA "middle short loin" steak containing both tenderloin and sirloin, cut 1 3/4 inches thick with the rib-end spine bone sawn away, is a porterhouse. Ask for a bone-in porterhouse cut to that thickness; trimmed to about 2 1/4 lb it serves two generously or three modestly.
A slow, well sustained fireThis means a deep bed of coals burned down past the flaming stage, with steady even heat and no flare-ups — roughly a medium grill, hand held five seconds above the grate. A blazing fire will char the outside long before the center of a 1 3/4-inch steak is warm.
Turning only onceRanhofer's single turn at the halfway point suits a charcoal bed and gives a strong crust. Turning every two or three minutes cooks such a thick steak more evenly and is often recommended now; either works, but the times below assume something close to his method.
The timingsFifteen to twenty minutes total for a steak this thick is realistic over moderate coals. If you use a modern searing heat, cut the time sharply and expect a smoky kitchen.
Judging by touchHis finger test is the hinge of the recipe and worth learning, but a thermometer removes the guesswork: roughly 125F at the centre for rare, 135F for medium rare, and 155F or above for what he would call well cooked. The tenderloin side cooks faster than the sirloin side, so probe both.
RestingThe original sends the steak straight to a very hot dish under butter. Five to eight minutes of rest before carving keeps the juices in; the hot dish and the melting butter will hold the temperature.
Maitre d'hotel butterNo. 581 in this book is simply softened butter worked with chopped parsley, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Two or three tablespoons is enough for one steak.
CarvingCut along the bone to free the tenderloin and the strip, then slice each across the grain and reassemble on the platter so both portions get some of each muscle.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's account of the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, where he was for many years the chef, and the porterhouse steak was one of the house's signature American dishes alongside a "Double Porterhouse Steak à la Sanford." The French heading, bifteck d'aloyau, points to the borrowed vocabulary of the period: aloyau is the loin, and bifteck is French phonetics applied to the English "beefsteak." The name porterhouse is generally traced to nineteenth-century American porter houses, the taverns that sold porter and dark beer alongside plain grilled meat, though the specific New York establishment credited with it varies from telling to telling. By Ranhofer's day the cut was widely taken as the measure of a good American chophouse, and judging doneness by pressing the meat — as he describes, since reliable thermometers were not part of a working kitchen's tools — was a skill acquired only at the broiler.