The Joy of Cooking!

Steak au Poivre or Peppered Steak from The Joy of Cooking.

The Joy of Cooking is such a great book. Mine is a 1964 edition that I found at the De Anza flea market. As I dug through the books on the table at the used book stall looking for the perfect find… I saw it wedged in between the Richard Simmons Desserts Cookbook (no really) and a pile of ‘The Wok Way’ pamphlets. I picked it up, with its tattered cover and opened. Inside I found this:

For Fran (Yes, for Michael too!)

On third wedding anniversary—

August 28^th , 1969

With all my love,

Jan J

How could I not buy it and give it a new home?! I do wonder if Michael ever cooked anything out of it. If Fran used it she couldn’t go wrong. This book has cocktail recipes, soups, gravies, meat, poultry, coffee cakes, candies and everything a 60’s housewife could want!

This book is so amazing. It’s really all the basics you ever needed to know AND it’s got a Goethe quote to start it off:

“That which thy fathers have bequeathed to thee, earn it anew if thou wouldst possess it.” Goethe: Faust

Random but how great is that?!

So last night I walked in the door to the strains of Steak!, Steak!, Steak! I had some great sirloin in the fridge so I figured… sure why not? Well I was a non-red-meat eater for 15 years so I actually am a total novice when it comes to cooking steak.

I nabbed the Joy of Cooking and flipped to Beef – Sirloin and voila!

Steak Au Poivre

Use: Trimmed 1-inch-think strip sirloin, club or filet mignon steaks

Crush: 1 to 2 tablespoons peppercorns

The pepper should not be ground but crushed coarsely on a board with a pressing, rolling movement, using the bottom of a pan. Press the steaks into the crushed pepper and work it into both sides of the meat with the heel of your palm or with the flat side of a cleaver. Sprinkle the bottom of a skillet with:

2 teaspoons salt

When it begins to brown, put the steaks into the pan and brown uncovered over high heat. Reduce to medium heat, turn the steaks and cook to desired degree of rareness. In a separate pan, prepare:

¼ cup butter

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons lemon juice

** I didn’t have worcestshire sauce OR lemon juice so I substituted with soy sauce and white wine—worked totally fine.

Remove the steaks from the pan in which they have been cooked and discard the pan drippings. Pour the butter moisture over steaks. Flambé steaks with:

2 oz cognac

I thought this dry frying with salt technique was really interesting. But make sure you have a hood vent or a really open window (neither of which I’ve got) in your kitchen because this causes some serious pepper infused smoke (I was actually coughing). You’re also supposed to flambé the suckers too but after the smoke filled kitchen incident I didn’t want to chance it. So no cognac or open flame for me.

This was super-juicy and the sauce… ooooh butter. Butter, butter, butter. Really how can you go wrong?

I added a roasted artichoke with a mayo sauce and really a fantastic mid-week meal that met with YAYS all around.

Enjoy!

Erin

Comments

[Victoria]

This was my very first cookbook! I got it as an engagement present from a college friend in 1967 when it was almost brand new (as you can see, I'm not). And this recipe was one of the recipes I made all the time when I was learning to cook. The first dish I ever made from this book was going to be meatloaf, but since my husband was hungry and didn't want to wait for dinner as long as the meatloaf would take to cook, I tried a variation in the book, which was to make little "meatloafs" in a muffin pan. The problem was I didn't know then that dried parsley is an abomination and should never be used - but if it is, it must be reduced in volume since it's dehydrated and will expand when it hits liquid. So instead of little meatloaf balls, I made parsley balls. They were awful. By the way, I believe the paperback version of Joy is this edition.

[EB]

I LOVE that story. It's just so sweet. I hope your new hubby appreciated those parsley balls! I haven't tried the mini-meatloaves sounds like they could be a fun dish.

Thanks for stopping by!
Erin

[Alcoholic cocktail recipes]

Goood blog... interesting!!

[bedroom foods]

Blog is so good where i get lots of information about Steak au Poivre or Peppered Steak nice job!!