Venison Steaks
Venison steaks are readily cooked in the chafing dish. Two hours before cooking they should be trimmed and wiped, then brushed on both sides with olive oil. Have a spoonful of oil or butter in the dish, light the lamp and when it is hot lay in the meat, turning it over every two minutes until well colored. Season as the meat is turned and have ready some chestnut sauce in a separate dish. This is prepared by adding boiled and sieved chestnuts to a good brown sauce. A few spoonfuls of this is poured over the venison and in another moment the light is turned down and the meat is ready for immediate service.
A chafing-dish recipe, meaning a shallow pan over a spirit lamp at the table. A heavy skillet on the stove does the same work with better heat control.
- The two-hour oil restTrimming, wiping and oiling the steaks two hours ahead is the first step. The recipe gives no reason for the interval; the effect is to let the meat lose its chill so a lean cut cooks evenly in the few minutes a chafing dish allows, and the oil film helps it brown. Worth doing rather than going straight from refrigerator to pan.
- Venison is not beefFarmed venison loin or leg steaks cut 3/4 inch thick want a total of about 4 to 6 minutes for medium-rare, 125-130F at the center. Past medium the meat turns dry and livery, because there is almost no intramuscular fat to protect it. The instruction to turn every two minutes until "well colored" already assumes a short cooking time.
- Chafing-dish heatA spirit lamp gives modest, even heat. On a modern range use medium-high in cast iron, and add a spoonful of butter alongside the oil for color rather than relying on butter alone, which will darken.
- Chestnut sauce"A good brown sauce" means an espagnole or a reduced brown stock thickened with a little roux. Vacuum-packed or jarred cooked chestnuts, simmered until soft and pushed through a sieve, replace the boiled fresh ones; whisk the puree in until the sauce coats a spoon. Season with a little salt and pepper, and a spoonful of Madeira or port is traditional with game.
- Seasoning as you turnSalt and pepper each side as the steak is flipped, as the recipe directs, rather than two hours ahead alongside the oil.
- Serve at onceThe sauce is poured over at the last moment and the lamp turned down, not off, only to hold the dish warm for a minute. Venison stiffens as it cools, so plate immediately on warmed plates.
- YieldAllow 6 to 8 oz of trimmed venison per person; 1 1/2 lb of steaks and about a cup of sauce serves four.
The chafing dish had a genuine vogue in American households around 1900, and cookbooks of the period gave it whole chapters: it let a hostess cook at the table without a servant, and it suited exactly the sort of quick, small, expensive dish this recipe describes. The instructions begin not with buying but with trimming and wiping. The pairing with chestnuts follows French practice, where marrons and brown sauce were the standard accompaniment to game, and chestnuts were then a common autumn market item in the eastern United States before blight destroyed the American chestnut in the following decades. The formula "add a puree to a good brown sauce" passes over the sauce itself in a phrase, which tells you how much of the period's cooking rested on a stockpot at the back of the stove.