No. 1378

Sirloin Steak for Gourmets; Extra Forty Ounces

Bifteck de Contrefilet des Gourmets; Extra Quarante Onces

Cut from a good thick sirloin of beef, slices, each one being four to five inches thick; beat to flatten them down to three inches, then trim them carefully, salt them on both sides, cover with either clarified butter or melted marrow, and place in a double gridiron and broil them over a moderate fire for twenty minutes if desired rare, twenty-six minutes to have them properly done, and thirty minutes when needed to be well done. Lay them on top of a gravy prepared as follows: Have two tablespoonfuls of finely chopped shallot, fry it colorless in three ounces of butter, add some melted glaze (No. 402), stir in four ounces of fine butter, a teaspoonful of the best tarragon vinegar, chopped parsley, a dash of cayenne pepper, and two ounces of beef marrow cut into half inch squares. When the marrow is warm, pour it on the dish, lay the extra size steak on top, glaze it with meat glaze (No. 402), and garnish around with gastronome potatoes (No. 2789).

← No. 1377 Delmonico Sirloin Steak, Spanish Style Beef No. 1379 Tenderloin of Beef. How to Prepare →

For the Modern Kitchen

A single steak of about two and a half pounds, grilled over coals and served on a shallot-marrow butter sauce. The proportions are generous even by chophouse standards, and almost everything here hangs on how the fire is managed.

What "forty ounces" meansThe name is the weight of the raw steak: 2 lb 8 oz, cut four to five inches thick and pounded down to three. Ranhofer gives no yield, but a piece that size is plainly meant to be carved and shared rather than served whole to one diner.
ContrefiletThe French term for the boneless strip loin running along the outside of the short loin, sold in the US as strip loin, New York strip or Kansas City strip. A thick center-cut roast-sized piece from that muscle is the modern equivalent.
Judge by temperature, not the clockTwenty minutes for rare assumes a steak three inches thick over what Ranhofer calls only "a moderate fire"; the actual heat of your fire will differ. An instant-read thermometer in the center is the more reliable guide: roughly 120-125F for rare, 130-135F medium-rare, 155F and up for well done. Pull it a few degrees short and let it rest 10-15 minutes.
The double gridironA hinged wire cage that clamps the meat so it can be turned in one motion without tearing the crust or dropping the buttered surface into the fire. A hinged grill basket does the same job; without one, turn with tongs every few minutes rather than once.
Meat glazeNo. 402 is glace de viande "brown stock reduced until it is syrupy and sets firm when cold. A good commercial demi-glace or veal glace works; a spoonful dissolves into the butter sauce and a second spoonful, brushed over the rested steak, gives the shine the recipe calls for.
MarrowBoth the basting fat and the sauce garnish are beef marrow, soaked out of split canoe-cut bones. Soak the bones in cold salted water a few hours, poach gently until the marrow slips out, then dice.
The sauce is a butter sauceSeven ounces of butter total against a little glaze and vinegar. Keep it warm, never hot enough to boil, or it splits; the marrow cubes are added at the end only long enough to soften, not to melt away.
Tarragon vinegar and cayenneA teaspoon of tarragon vinegar in that quantity of butter is a background note, not a bite. If your vinegar is a sharp modern one (most run around 5-7%), start with half and taste.
GarnishGastronome potatoes are the subject of Ranhofer's No. 2789, not given here; they are a small trimmed potato preparation finished in butter. Any buttered cocotte or fondant potato around the platter serves the same purpose.

A Little History

Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry belongs to the era's most conspicuous form of luxury: not a rare ingredient but sheer scale. A forty-ounce sirloin, carved for the table off a single slab, sits beside recipes for "Delmonico sirloin, Spanish style; tenderloin of beef," which show how much of the restaurant's reputation rested on American beef cooked plainly over fire. The refinement is in the sauce rather than the meat: shallot softened in butter, a spoonful of glace de viande, tarragon vinegar and diced marrow. There is no wine here, so it is not a beurre marchand de vin, and what resemblance it bears to a bordelaise rests on the marrow alone. Marrow is often said to have been ordinary and cheap then, a byproduct of a butcher's counter that broke down whole animals; its return to menus as a delicacy is a fairly recent reversal.