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Beefsteaks, Etuvee with Potatoes
Cut from a two-pound piece (hip part) of beef very thin slices. Season with a half teaspoon salt and half teaspoon white pepper. Peel and slice very finely three medium, sound, raw pototoes and season with half teaspoon each salt and pepper. Lightly butter an earthen baking dish, arrange a layer of the potatoes (one-fourth) at the bottom of dish, then a third of the beef over potatoes, sprinkle half teaspoon freshly chopped parsley over the beef, then arrange another fourth of the potatoes, then another third of the beef, half teaspoon parsley, and so on until finished. Cover the top with two thin slices larding pork, pour half gill water over all, cover the pan and set in oven for an hour and a half, remove and serve in the same dish.
A covered layered braise of beef and potato with almost no added liquid — the meat and potatoes make their own. Two details carry the dish: the slices must be genuinely thin, and the lid must stay on.
- Oven temperatureThe original gives none, and the recipe uses no oven term to interpret. A moderate oven, roughly 325-350F, suits the hour and a half stated; much higher and the scant liquid boils away before the potatoes are done.
- Half a gill of waterA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 1/4 cup — barely more than a splash. That is correct: the potatoes and beef release plenty of moisture under a tight lid, and the dish should braise rather than stew.
- Larding porkFatback or unsmoked salt pork, cut in two thin sheets. It bastes the top layer as it renders. Fatty pancetta or thin-sliced unsmoked streaky bacon stands in; if the pork is salted, cut back the salt in the seasoning.
- Hip part of beefTop round or rump. Cut across the grain into slices about 1/8 inch thick — chilling the piece for 30 minutes firms it enough to slice cleanly, and a butcher will do it if asked.
- Potatoes very finely slicedAbout 1/16 inch, which is mandoline territory. Thicker slices will take longer to soften, since the dish relies on steam from a small amount of liquid rather than immersion.
- The coverA tight lid is the whole mechanism. If the dish has no lid, seal it with foil under a plate or heavy tray; a loose cover lets the quarter-cup of water escape early and risks the potatoes scorching.
- LayeringFour potato layers to three of beef, finishing with potato, then the pork on top. Keep the arithmetic — the top potato layer is what browns lightly under the rendering fat.
- YieldTwo pounds of beef and three potatoes serves four generously as written, with nothing else needed but a green salad. It is brought to table in its baking dish.
Étuvée is the French kitchen's term for cooking in a closed vessel with very little liquid — from étuve, a steam room or drying stove — and it names a method rather than a specific dish. What is set down here is the domestic form of that method: alternating layers of thinly sliced meat and potato, a sheet of pork fat on top to baste as it renders, and just enough water to get the steam started. Versions of the same layered idea turn up elsewhere in northern Europe, Lancashire hotpot among them, and they share a common logic: a cheap, firm cut from the hindquarter is made tender by long, gentle, enclosed heat, while the potatoes absorb the meat juices instead of letting them escape into a broth. The instruction to serve in the same dish is practical as much as stylish — the layers will not survive being turned out, and the earthenware holds heat all the way to the table.</p>