No. 1367

Rump Steak a la Villageoise

Bifteck de Pointe Culotte a la Villageoise

Only young beef that have never performed any labor can supply tender rump steaks. Cut transverse slices of three-quarters of an inch thickness from a rump of beef; season them with salt and pepper, and baste over with oil or melted butter; lay them on the gridiron and broil over a brisk fire from twelve to fourteen minutes. Chop up some boiled, peeled, and cold potatoes, put them in a saucepan with butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg and sweet cream; boil them once, then let simmer until the ingredients have sufficient consistency. Butter the inside of a baking dish, line it with a layer of these potatoes, besprinkle over with bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese, and put to bake in a very hot oven. Glaze the rump steak with meat glaze (No. 402), and serve it on top of the potatoes.

← No. 1366 Round Steak with Water-Cress Beef No. 1368 Small Sirloin Steak of Twelve Ounces, Plain →

For the Modern Kitchen

Two components: a broiled rump steak and a creamed-potato gratin beneath it. The potatoes are the part that needs attention, since Ranhofer gives no oven time and the timing on the steak reflects 1890s taste.

The cut"Pointe de culotte" is the tip of the rump, roughly corresponding to what is sold in the US as top sirloin or rump roast; ask the butcher for a thick slice off the aitchbone end. Ranhofer's insistence on young beef that never worked is his way of saying rump from a mature draft animal is tough.
Broiling timeTwelve to fourteen minutes over a brisk fire will take a three-quarter-inch steak well past medium. For a steak that thickness, work to internal temperature: about 130F for medium rare, which is closer to 6-8 minutes total with one turn.
"A very hot oven"Conventionally read as somewhere around 450-500F, though Ranhofer gives no temperature. The gratin is only being browned and glazed, not cooked through, so 10-15 minutes on an upper rack should be enough; the potatoes go in already hot from the saucepan.
Sweet creamSimply fresh, unsoured cream; the qualifier distinguished it from cream that had been allowed to sour. Heavy cream is the right choice, as the mixture is reduced until it holds together.
Meat glaze (No. 402)Ranhofer's glaze is brown stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. A commercial demi-glace or veal glace reduced further, brushed on the hot steak, gives the same lacquer.
"Chop up" the potatoesNot mashed — coarsely cut cold boiled potatoes, which hold some shape in the cream. Using them already boiled and cold also helps the layer hold together rather than turning to paste.
YieldRanhofer gives only the thickness, not the size of the slice or any quantities. A slice of this kind would serve two to three; something like 1 1/2 lb potatoes and 3/4 cup cream suits that number, in a shallow dish so the crumb-and-parmesan top is a large proportion of the whole.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium of the food he cooked during three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York. À la villageoise — "village style" — was one of the French garnish names that signalled a rustic pedigree, though period usage of the term is inconsistent, and in practice the rusticity here is notional: creamed potatoes under bread crumbs and parmesan, browned in a fierce oven. The note that only young, unworked cattle give tender rump is a genuine trace of the period's concerns about meat supply, and the difference between worked and unworked animals was evidently obvious enough to warrant a warning at the head of the recipe.