No. 1713

Lamb or Mutton Steak Plain, Maitre d'Hotel

Steak d'Agneau ou de Mouton Nature, Maitre d'Hotel

The steak is a slice either of lamb or mutton cut through the entire thickness of the leg; for this a two-pronged steel fork is used (Fig. 349) thrust into a hole bored for the purpose in the butcher's table, having it the same diameter as the handle of the fork; the leg is placed on the fork in such a way that the shank bone passes between the two prongs, then cut off slices from five to six-eights of an inch thick; saw through the bone the same thickness as the meat. The fork is for the purpose of upholding the bone so that it can be sawed through more easily. Season the steak with salt, coat it over with oil and broil, serve on a very hot dish either plain or with a maitre d'hotel butter (No. 581).

← No. 1712 Blanquette of Leg of Lamb Lamb No. 1714 Leg of Lamb with Carrots →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is describing what a butcher now calls a leg steak or centre-cut leg chop: a cross-section of the whole leg, bone in the middle. The recipe itself is four lines of cooking and a page of butchery, so the work is mostly in the shopping.

Skip the butcheryThe fork-and-bored-hole apparatus exists only to steady the shank while the bone is sawn. Ask for bone-in lamb leg steaks cut 5/8 to 3/4 inch thick, which is exactly the thickness specified here, and the problem disappears.
Thickness mattersFive to six-eighths of an inch is 16-19 mm. Thinner than that and the steak is grey through before the outside colours; much thicker and the bone shields the centre from the heat.
"Broil" means direct fireIn 1894 this was a gridiron over live coals. Use a very hot grill, a ridged cast-iron pan, or an oven broiler with the rack close to the element. Roughly 3-4 minutes a side for medium-rare, 130-135F at the centre, away from the bone.
Lamb or mutton is not the same cookingMutton is sheep over two years old: firmer, stronger-flavoured, and less forgiving on a grill. If you can find it, give it a little longer and rest it well, or accept that a slow-cooked treatment suits it better.
Maitre d'hotel butterThe No. 581 the recipe cross-refers to is the standard compound butter: softened butter worked with chopped parsley, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Roll it in paper, chill firm, and lay a coin of it on the steak at the table so it melts into the juices.
Oil, not butter, before the fireThe steak is coated with oil, presumably because butter blackens over coals. The order in the text is salt first, then oil, so the seasoning has a moment to draw before the oil holds it in place.
The hot dish is not a flourishA bone-in steak this thin loses heat fast, and cold maitre d'hotel butter drops the temperature further. Warm the serving plates properly.
YieldOne leg steak of this size, bone included, serves one person generously or two modestly alongside vegetables.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's summary of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its lamb chapter reads like a butcher's manual because Ranhofer expected a professional kitchen to break down whole carcasses rather than buy cuts. The leg steak is a thrifty answer to a problem of scale: a roasted leg feeds a table at once, while steaks cut across it can be fired to order all evening. Maitre d'hotel butter -- parsley, lemon, seasoning worked into butter -- is a long-established French compound butter, usually understood to be named for the steward or house-manager rather than any single cook. It survives in restaurant practice precisely because it does what this recipe needs: it supplies a sauce with no saucepan, melting on contact and finishing a plainly grilled piece of meat that would otherwise arrive dry.