No. 1373

Small Sirloin Steak, Ancient Style

Bifteck de Contrefilet a l'Ancienne

After the sirloin is cooked as in the plain (No. 1368) lay it on a dish, besprinkling it over with some anchovy butter (No. 569). Form on top a crown of anchovy fillets garnishing the interior with capers, and set round the steak a garnishing of potato balls, each an inch in diameter, fried three quarters in hot fat, and finishing cooking in the oven with some butter; when done drain off the butter, and season with salt, chopped parsley and lemon juice.

← No. 1372 Small Sirloin Steak a la Bordelaise with Mar Beef No. 1374 Small Sirloin Steak, with Butter and Cooked →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in cross-references, so this reads as a garnish scheme rather than a method. The steak itself is cooked plainly; everything that makes the dish is assembled on the platter.

What contrefilet isThe contrefilet is the strip loin — the sirloin muscle with the fillet removed, what a US butcher sells as New York strip or top loin. "Small" here means a single portion-sized piece cut from it rather than a whole roast; Ranhofer specifies no weight.
The plain cooking it refers back toNo. 1368 is the plain preparation of the same cut, seasoned and simply broiled or pan-cooked; its details are not reproduced here. Aim for an internal temperature of 130-135F for medium rare and rest it a few minutes before the butter goes on, or the butter will melt away instead of glazing.
Anchovy butterNo. 569 is Ranhofer's anchovy butter: anchovy fillets pounded smooth, worked into softened butter and passed through a sieve. Two or three fillets to 4 oz of butter is enough; anchovies vary a good deal in saltiness, so taste and hold back any additional salt on the steak.
The hinge: two salt sourcesAnchovy butter, whole anchovy fillets and capers all carry heavy salt. Season the steak lightly and the potatoes at the very end, tasting first. This is the one place the dish reliably goes wrong.
Potato ballsInch-diameter balls cut with a large parisienne scoop, or peeled potatoes turned by hand. "Fried three quarters" means blanched in fat until nearly tender but barely coloured, then finished in butter in a hot oven until brown. Ranhofer gives no temperatures; around 325F for the blanching and 400F for the finish are modern approximations.
AssemblyDrape or dot the butter over the hot steak, ring the top with anchovy fillets laid crown-fashion, heap the capers in the middle, and set the potatoes around the base. Dress the potatoes with salt, parsley and lemon only after draining, so they stay crisp.
YieldOne steak of this size serves one generously or two modestly. The garnish scales directly; figure 6-8 potato balls per person.

A Little History

The dish comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium of the kitchen he ran at Delmonico's in New York, where recipes are numbered and constantly cross-referenced like entries in a technical manual. The label à l'ancienne — "in the ancient style" — was a stock French menu term of the period, applied loosely to garnishes felt to belong to an older grand-cuisine manner rather than to any documented historical recipe; here it signals the anchovy-and-caper treatment, a pairing with salted fish that European cooks had used on beef since long before Ranhofer, and which survives in the anchovy in a classic beurre de Montpellier. The elaborate garnishing for a single small steak is characteristic of Delmonico's: a plain piece of grilled meat became a named dish through what was arranged around it.