No. 1376

Delmonico Sirloin Steak a la Perigueux

Bifteck de Contrefilet Delmonico a la Perigueux

After cooking the steak the same as for plain (No. 1375), lay it over a Perigueux sauce (No. 517), into which mix the third of its quantity of small chicken quenelles, forced through a cornet to three-eighths of an inch in diameter, glazing it with meat glaze.

← No. 1375 Delmonico Sirloin Steak of Twenty Ounces, Pl Beef No. 1377 Delmonico Sirloin Steak, Spanish Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a finishing recipe rather than a standalone one: Ranhofer assumes you have already grilled the steak by No. 1375 and have Périgueux sauce (No. 517) and chicken forcemeat on hand. Read it as three components assembled at the last minute.

What the dish actually isContrefilet is the boneless sirloin strip, cut here at the Delmonico house weight of twenty ounces — a thick steak for two. It is grilled, then laid on the sauce, not under it, so the crust stays dry.
Périgueux saucePérigueux sauce -- Classically this is a demi-glace finished with Madeira and chopped black truffle; Ranhofer's No. 517 is not reproduced here. A modern equivalent is a good reduced veal stock sauce with Madeira and truffle; truffle peelings or a little truffle juice will carry the flavour if whole tubers are out of reach.
Meat glazeGlace de viande is brown stock reduced until it sets to a syrupy, tacky jelly. It is brushed on warm for shine, not poured. A teaspoon or two is enough for one steak.
The quenellesChicken forcemeat piped through a cornet (a paper or cloth piping cone) at three-eighths of an inch — about 1 cm — gives small dumplings that poach in barely trembling salted stock or water in two to three minutes. Water at a full boil will break them; that is the hinge of the garnish.
Proportion"The third of its quantity" means the quenelles make up a third of the volume of sauce, so roughly one cup of sauce to a third of a cup of quenelles. Fold them in off the heat so they stay whole and are only heated through.
Assembly orderSauce and quenelles go down on a hot platter first, steak on top, glaze last. Everything should be ready before the steak leaves the grill.
YieldOne twenty-ounce sirloin with garnish serves two generously, or three as part of a longer menu of the kind this book was written for.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the restaurant's repertoire, which is why so many of its entries are written as cross-references — the sauces, forcemeats and grilling methods live in their own numbered sections and are simply called up by number. The name à la Périgueux points to Périgord in southwestern France, the country of the black truffle, and by the late nineteenth century it had settled into a fixed meaning in professional kitchens: a brown sauce with Madeira and truffle. A steak with truffle sauce, piped chicken quenelles and a coat of meat glaze is a compact picture of what a Delmonico's order involved — a plain grilled piece of American beef given a full French dress by a brigade that had the stock pot, the forcemeat and the glaze standing ready all service long.