No. 671

Fritadelles of Roast Beef Garnishing

Garniture de Fritadelles de Rosbif

Cut into three sixteenth inch squares, one pound of lean roast beef, chop up two ounces of onions, fry in two ounces of butter, dredge over with two spoonfuls of flour, moisten with broth and reduce; then add the beef, salt, pepper, nutmeg, chopped parsley and two ounces of cooked lean ham cut as small as the beef, heat the whole without boiling; set it aside to get cold and then roll it into balls one inch and a quarter in diameter, flatten down, dip in beaten eggs, bread-crumbs, and fry them nicely in butter.

← No. 670 Fritadelles of Veal Garnishing Garnishings No. 672 Godard Garnishing →

For the Modern Kitchen

A use for the end of a roast: cooked beef bound in a thick onion-flour sauce, chilled, breaded and fried. The whole thing succeeds or fails on the chilling step.

Chill it hardThe mixture must be genuinely cold and firm before shaping, or the cakes slump in the pan and the coating splits. An hour in the refrigerator, spread thin on a plate, is more effective than a longer wait in a deep bowl.
The sauce is a binder, not a gravyWhen the recipe says moisten with broth and reduce, it wants a paste stiff enough to hold a spoon mark. Start with about half a cup of broth to the two ounces of butter and two spoonfuls of flour and cook it down; a loose sauce will not set.
"Two spoonfuls"Most likely tablespoons, so roughly 2 tablespoons of flour to 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) of butter. The book does not spell the measure out, so treat it as an estimate; the ratio is generous in butter, and you may need a touch more flour to get a paste that sets firm.
Three sixteenths of an inchA scant quarter-inch dice, cut by hand. Do not grind the beef: the point of the dish is that you can see and feel the meat, and ground cooked beef turns pasty.
Heat without boilingThe beef is already cooked. Warming it just enough to marry with the sauce keeps it tender; a simmer squeezes it dry and the fritadelles come out mealy.
Frying in butterWhole butter at the heat needed to brown breadcrumbs will scorch. Use clarified butter, or butter with a neutral oil, in about a quarter inch of fat over medium heat, two to three minutes a side until the crust is set and colored.
NutmegGrate it fresh and use a pinch. Too heavy a hand will dominate the meat.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry sits in the garnishings chapter rather than among the beef dishes: small fried items arranged around a larger roast or entree. Fritadelle belongs with German Frikadelle and Scandinavian frikadeller, all of them meaning a small flattened meat cake; the family is often linked to Italian frittella, a fried thing, though the derivation is not settled. Ranhofer gives a run of them in sequence -- veal at No. 670, beef here.