No. 1366

Round Steak with Water-Cress

Bifteck de Noix de Boeuf au Cresson

Cut from the round top of a young beef, the meat being pink and tender slices of three-quarters of an inch thick. Season them with salt and peppers, coat them over with sweet oil, and broil on a moderate, well sustained fire for eight or ten minutes; as soon as they are done set them on a very hot dish, and pour over a layer of maitre-d'hotel butter (No. 581). Wash well some fresh water-cress, drain, and season it with salt and vinegar, garnish round the dish with it.

← No. 1365 Rib Steak a la Royer Beef No. 1367 Rump Steak a la Villageoise →

For the Modern Kitchen

A plain grilled steak from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen, where the interest lies in the cut and the two garnishes rather than in any technique. Two things carry it: a very hot serving dish and a compound butter ready before the meat leaves the fire.

Noix de boeufThe noix is the rounded top of the round, sometimes sold as top round. It is lean and can be dry; modern grain-fed top round benefits from being cut no thicker than the specified three-quarters of an inch and taken no further than medium-rare.
Sweet oilNineteenth-century shorthand for olive oil, as opposed to lamp or machine oil. A light coating is all that is wanted here, enough to keep the lean surface from sticking and to help it colour.
A moderate, well sustained firePresumably a bed of coals burning steadily with no flare-ups; the book gives no temperature, so medium-high on a gas grill or a cast-iron grill pan is only an approximation. "Well sustained" is the operative phrase: the heat must not fall off partway through.
Eight to ten minutesThat timing was written for a coal fire. On a modern grill, a three-quarter-inch steak of lean round will usually reach medium-rare well inside that window, so check with a thermometer at 125-130F rather than by the clock.
Maitre-d'hotel butterNo. 581 is not reprinted here; maitre-d'hotel butter is classically butter creamed with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Make it ahead, roll it in paper and chill it, then lay a slice on the hot steak so it melts into the juices.
A very hot dishNot a stylistic flourish. Lean round loses its appeal the moment it cools, and the compound butter will congeal on a cold platter instead of running.
The watercressDressed only with salt and vinegar, no oil, because the oil is already on the meat and in the butter. Dress it at the last moment or the leaves will collapse.
YieldFigure one slice of six to eight ounces per person; the recipe as written scales directly by the number of steaks.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer wrote The Epicurean (1894) after some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, in two separate spells, and the book is essentially the restaurant's working repertoire set down in order, cross-referenced by number so that a cook could chase maitre-d'hotel butter back to No. 581 without reprinting it. The steak is served with watercress, the peppery cress dressed with vinegar to cut the butter. The cut called for is the noix, a lean muscle from the round rather than a loin cut.