5. ... IS ANOTHER'S MEAT

For the quick gourmet chef, meat is sometimes a problem —so many of the most delicious dishes seem to require hours of simmering time.

When minutes matter, it often seems that meat is limited to lamb chops and steak, and as anyone knows who has tried it, it is possible to become jaded with filet mignon six nights in a row.

While steak is the greatest quick-cooking meat, there are others, and a real gourmet enjoys all of them. But first comes the steak, and a perfectly cooked steak depends upon three things: thickness of meat, true heat of the broiler, and your personal taste.

Real gourmets eat their steaks rare to blood-rare; well-done beef is only for pot roasts.

Many supposedly-tender cuts such as sirloin and porter­house can be made foolproof by an unseasoned meat ten-derizer—to be sprinkled on and rubbed in about half an hour before cooking. This will not be necessary if you are lucky enough to have a butcher who hangs his own meat; very few do—and when they do, you pay accordingly.

Nothing is more critical than steak cookery because split seconds matter. A general rule for a 1-inch steak is: a 500 broiler, meat placed one inch below flame, broil 5 minutes on one side; turn over and broil 3 minutes on the other side. Remove steak immediately; a steak is one dish that cannot be "kept hot," for every extra minute of heat will destroy the perfect degree of done-ness for your taste.

Personal experimentation will be necessary for steaks, how­ever: perhaps yours is a gas-fired broiler and the thermostat may be slightly off; or your personal taste may be for more red than pink (or vice versa). Armed with a kitchen timer, you must define the exact number of minutes for the exact thickness of steak to produce the result you like best.

FILET MIGNON, TOURNEDOS and CHATEAUBRIAND

These are all prime beef tenderloin, differing only in size and presentation. Beef tenderloin needs nothing but a ses­sion beneath a broiler flame—but responds to many sauces and marinades.

Filet Mignon is a slice of tenderloin, and absolutely its own excuse for its price. It should be cut % to an inch thick, weigh about half a pound per serving, and it should not be trimmed of whatever fat it possesses. A filet mignon is always broiled.

Tournedos are created by trimming and shaping the en­tire beef tenderloin into a long roll, wrapped in bacon strips or thin slabs of beef suet, securely tied in place. The Tour­nedos are then sliced evenly to your order in thicknesses of one or two inches. Customarily they are sauteed in butter or olive oil, and served with fancy sauces and garnishes.

Chateaubriand is a thick hunk of beef tenderloin in one piece, weighing one or two pounds. It is grilled or sauteed before slicing into serving portions. Expensive to buy in a restaurant, it's none too cheap to prepare at home—because the risk of failure is high. A true Chateaubriand must be well-browned but not charred on the outside; pinkish-red and warmed through, yet not raw at the center . . . and this ain't easyl

FILET MIGNON

A slice of beef tenderloin may be anointed with prepared mustard (Bahamian or Dijon); chutney juice; coarse-ground pepper; painted delicately with Kitchen Bouquet mixed in water. . . .

It can be anointed before cooking and basted as it is turned over during broiling, with a melted butter sauce containing: garlic; herbs (parsley, tarragon, chives, chervil); spices (nut­meg, cinnamon, ginger—but never cloves); grated lemon and orange peel . . .

It can be broiled' au naturel and served with table sauces 54 from Bearnaise to Diable, Robert, Madeira or plain horse­radish. . . .

Aside from disastrous over-cooking, there is not really any­thing that can ruin a filet mignon—except a coating of mashed bananas and ground peanuts. . . .

For the simplest possible FILET MIGNON CHEZ VOUS: broil your filet to taste; place on the serving plates and smear with a generous tablespoon of butter per each. Douse with a tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce. As this melts and runs together about the hot steak, it will blend with meat juices and no other table sauce will be needed.

TOURNEDOS BEARNAISE

Beef tenderloin on toast, with a traditional sauce.

Cook 4 toumedos in butter, place on small slices of but­tered toast (crusts removed), add 2 or 3 tablespoons of Bear­naise sauce on top of each tournedo—and serve extra Bear­naise sauce in a warmed sauce boat.

TOURNEDOS ROSSINI

Beef tenderloin on toast spread with pate de foie gras, topped by pan gravy.

4 tournedos cooked in butter to your taste

4 slices of pate de foie gras(neatly cut from a chilled tin)

2 T Madeira wine

4 mushroom caps

1 sliced truffle

½ cup bouillon

1 T meat glaze

1 T sherry

Watercress garnish

Cook the tournedos in butter to your own taste, and re­move to a warmed platter. Sautee mushroom caps gently for 5 minutes (in butter) while the tournedos are cooking, and prepare 4 slices buttered toast (crusts removed).

To the meat pan, add 4 neat slices of pate de foie gras and 1 minced truffle, and heat very gently in the meat drip­pings. Place the foie gras on the toast, top with the tournedos and a bit of minced truffle. Keep warm.

Deglaze the pan by adding the bouillon mixed with meat glaze and sherry, and the Madeira, and scraping down all the good brown bits of meat from the sides of the pan. Blend it all as smoothly as possible, pour over the tournedos, gar­nish with bunches of watercress.

CHATEAUBRIAND PARISIENNE

Beef tenderloin sauteed in onion-wine sauce, served with fancy vegetables.

1¾ pound beef tenderloin, in one piece, trimmed of fat and skin

½ pound butter

8 mushrooms, separated(caps left hole; stems sliced)

1 cup dry white wine

2 T minced fresh parsley

1 tsp tarragon

½ crumbled bay leaf

1 pinch of thyme

juice of half a lemon

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 package frozen artichoke hearts

1 large tin small boiled potatoes

Melt 2 T butter in a frying pan over high flame; when golden brown, sear the steak quickly on both sides. Reduce heat and cook 10-12 minutes on each side over the low flame. Remove to a heated serving dish.

Meanwhile, cook and drain artichokes. In a separate fry­ing pan, melt 2 T butter, add artichokes and mushroom caps, and saute very gently for 10 minutes.

Simultaneously, drain the tin of potatoes and place in a shallow baking dish with 2 T melted butter. Shake until thoroughly coated. Sprinkle with parsley and dust with pap­rika. Place in a 450 oven for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. . . . These are Potatoes Noisette. Shake the pan occasionally in the oven, to turn the potatoes over so they will brown evenly.

Sauce:

When the Chateaubriand is cooked to your taste, discard most of the pan fat, retaining only about a tablespoon. Add 56 ½ tsp tarragon and stir with a wooden spoon. Add wine, thyme, bay leaf, and sliced mushroom stems, and cook until the sauce reduces to about half its volume, stirring constantly. Add 2 T butter cut in small pieces, and shake the pan back and forth until it melts. Finish with the juice of half a lemon, parsley and the remaining tarragon.

To serve:

Place the Chateaubriand in the center of the serving platter, surround with artichokes and potato balls, and distribute mushroom caps on top. Pour some of the sauce over the meat, serve the rest in a separate sauce boat, and slice the meat in ¾-inch sections at table.

BEARNAISE SAUCE

The great traditional steak sauce…

While this is available in jars at gourmet food shops, it is not too difficult to make at home.

1 cup white wine

1 T tarragon vinegar

1 T minced shallots(or scallions)

½ tsp chervil

2 crushed peppercorns

3 egg yolks

½ pound melted butter

Combine the wine, vinegar, shallots, chervil and pepper­corns and cook briskly over a hot flame, until the liquid boils down to ⅔ its original volume. Cool slightly, add egg yolks and melted butter very gradually and alternately—stirring constantly and vigorously.

The sauce should end with the consistency of heavy cream —and because egg yolks differ in size, you may not need all the melted butter . . . add it sparingly after you've incor­porated the eggs, and do not try to make the sauce absorb any more butter than it needs for a smooth texture. Blend thoroughly over a very low heat, strain through a fine sieve and decorate with a dash of paprika and a teaspoon of finely minced fresh parsley.

VEAL PARMIGIANA

Thin-sliced veal, topped with a tomato-cheese sauce.

This recipe will take every second of your 30 minutes allotment, but it can be done – just…

4 veal cutlets-pounded thin by the butcher(you will need 2 pounds of meat by weight)

2 eggs, beaten with salt and pepper to taste

¾ cup bread crumbs

4 T grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup tomato sauce

thin slices of Mozzarella cheese

3 T olive oil

Dip the pounded veal cutlet pieces in beaten egg, then in crumbs and Parmesan cheese, and sautee in hot olive oil until golden brown (about 10 minutes). Meanwhile heat the oven to 375.

Transfer the browned cutlets to a shallow baking pan, pour the tomato sauce over them, top with Mozzarella cheese slices and a sprinkling of grated Parmesan.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until the cheese melts and browns.

CHINESE PEPPER STEAK

A quick-cookery Oriental version of round steak, very simple to prepare at the last moment.

1¼ pound of round steak, in one piece

2 T olive oil

2 T minced onion

1 clove minced garlic

2 large sliced green peppers

½ cup sliced celery

1 tsp soy sauce

3 tsp cornstarch mixed in 2 T water

1 cup consomme

Slice the round steak in thin diagonal slivers—as though cutting a London Broil. Sear in hot olive oil. Add onion, garlic, seeded sliced peppers and celery, plus ½ cup of con­somme.

Cover the pan, reduce heat and cook 5 minutes.

Add cornstarch and water mixture, stirring vigorously— 58 and more consomme if needed to make a smooth sauce. Add the soy sauce, and simmer 5 minutes more. Serve at once with boiled rice.

BOEUF STROGANOFF

This is the great traditional Russian method of preparing beef tenderloin – simple to make, but too rich for a hot night!

1½ pounds beef tenderloin, cut in thin strips

1 T flour

2 T butter, plus 3 T

2 cups beef bouillon

3 T sour cream

2 T tomato paste

1 large grated onion

Make the sauce first: blend 2 T butter with flour until smooth, place over low heat, and very gradually add the bouillon—stirring constantly as the mixture thickens and re­moving any flour lumps. Bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes, add sour cream and tomato paste alternately, stirring con­stantly. Place over a very low heat and simmer; do not allow it to boil.

In a frying pan, brown the pieces of beef in butter and onion, for about 5 minutes; combine contents of meat pan with the sauce, and simmer the whole dish very very gently for 15 or 20 minutes. Serve with plenty of fluffy rice.

STEAK POIVRADE(Peppered Steak)

Entirely distinct from Chinese Pepper Steak, this is a traditional French preparation of steak with ground pepper.

2 pounds beef steak: porter-house, sirloin, tenderloin or what you will

2 T coarse-ground pepper

4 T butter

2 T olive oil

½ tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 T water

2 T cognac

¼ cup bouillon

Sprinkle one tablespoon of pepper on each side of the steak, pressing it firmly into the meat.

Heat butter and oil in a very heavy frying pan until hot but not brown; quickly sear the steak on both sides—to press the pepper grains into the flesh. Cook 3-5 minutes per side (or until done to your taste). Salt the steak lightly, and re­move to a heated serving platter.

Mix cornstarch with water smoothly, and add to steak pan. Pour in the cognac and stir thoroughly, scraping down every bit of meat glaze from the sides and bottom of the pan. Add bouillon, cook very gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, and pour over steak.

For quick cookery, beef is the best bet—lamb can only be prepared as lamb chops (and anyone knows how to cook them). Pork, whether chops or fillet, demands thorough slow cooking and although there are many good pork recipes that require no more than a few minutes to prepare, any of them will take an hour to cook.

Next to beef, then, we have veal—and various "meat ex­tras" such as kidneys and sweetbreads.

LAMB KIDNEYS SAUTEED

The simplest kidneys in wine, to be served with fluffy rice.

12 lamb kidneys, split by the butcher

4 T butter

12 mushrooms, thinly sliced

6 shallots, minced

1 clove of garlic, pressed

2 T minced parsley

½ cup white wine

Place kidneys in a bowl of cold water for 5-8 minutes; drain, strip off any remaining white membrane, and cut the kidneys in pieces.

Melt 3 T butter in a frying pan, sautee kidneys for 5 min­utes. Add mushrooms and shallots, garlic and parsley. Toss and turn the kidneys in the vegetable mixture, and as liquid boils, add wine together with a pinch of salt and pepper and remaining butter.

Cover and cook over a very moderate heat for 15 minutes.

ROGNONS DE VEAU(Veal kidneys)

Delicately flavored, veal kidneys baked with a butter-wine sauce… to be served with fluffy rice.

4 veal kidneys, cut in half

¼ pound melted butter

2 T minced fresh parsley

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp cinnamon

8 fresh mushrooms

¼ cup Calvados(apple brandy) or plain Armagnac

Heat the oven to 400.

Soak kidneys in cold water, while you melt butter, add parsley, nutmeg, cinnamon, mushroom caps, and sliced mush­room stems. Simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside the mushroom caps.

Drain the kidneys, removing any bits of white membrane overlooked by the butcher, and spread them in a buttered shallow baking pan.

Top with half of the butter sauce and bake for 10 minutes.

Turn over the kidneys, top with the reserved mushroom caps, add remaining sauce, mixed with the Calvados or brandy, and continue to bake for 10 minutes.

WIENER SCHNITZEL

A traditional Austrian veal dish, of thin veal cutlets in a breaded sauce.

2 pounds veal cutlet, cut in serving pieces and pounded thin

2 eggs, beaten

½ cup flour, seasoned with 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper

¾ cup fine bread crumbs

½ pound butter

4 T minced parsley

3 T lemon juice

Dip veal pieces into the flour mixture—then into the beaten egg—and then in bread crumbs. Be sure each piece is well-coated with crumbs. Sautee in melted butter for about 15 minutes or until tender, turning very tenderly so that the crumb-coating will not break away from the meat.

Remove the veal to warmed plates, add lemon juice and parsley, blend well, and pour over the veal before serving.

Wiener Schnitzel a la Holstein is exactly the same—but is embellished with a fried egg atop each cutlet.

OISEAUX SANS TETES(Veal Birds)

Rolled veal slices, stuffed with ham and bread, cooked in a simple broth.

8 pieces of veal, flattened as for scallopini

4 slices thin cold boiled ham

½ cup butter

2 chopped large onions, 1 large sliced onion

1 raw scraped carrot

¼ cup bread crumbs

3 T minced parsley

1 stalk minced celery

½ tsp poultry seasoning

1 cup consomme

Spread each veal slice with half a slice of the ham, top with stuffing. Roll up and tie firmly with string, tucking in the ends as neatly as a Macy package-wrapper.

Melt remaining butter in a pressure cooker, add sliced onion and carrot; brown veal birds on all sides. Add con­somme and cook for 15 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.

SWEETBREADS (Riz de Veau)

The thymus gland of the calf is a great delicacy in France. It must always be precooked as follows (so that any sweet­bread recipe inevitably must be 2-Step Cookery):

Blanch sweetbreads by covering with cold water, adding 2 T white vinegar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat sharply and simmer for 20 minutes. Then drain, and plunge the sweetbreads into icy-cold water (sacrifice a tray of ice cubes, if you must, to pack about the sweetbreads). Let stand until cool enough to handle; trim away any tubes or membranes, slice sweetbreads in half—or in thick slices—depending on the recipe ahead. Wrap carefully and store overnight (but no longer) in the refrigerator.

Frozen sweetbreads exist in the West; in the East, where French gastronomy is more general, sweetbreads are only to be had from first-class meat markets at a shocking price— but worth it, of course, if you favor la haute cuisine. Every little French restaurant serves:

RIZ DE VEAU VIRGINIE

Sweetbreads atop ham, atop toast, and covered with a rich cream sauce.

2 pairs of sweetbreads, cooked, separated and split in half

4 ham slices

8 mushroom caps

2 cups rich cream sauce(made from condensed chicken soup thinned with ¾ cup heavy cream)

2 T minced fresh parsley

2 T minced green pepper

2 minced shallots or scallions, sautéed in 1 T butter

4 slices hot buttered toast cut in strips

Heat the oven to 450.

Saute pepper, shallots and mushrooms in butter gently un­til soft (about 5 minutes). Do not brown.

Combine 1½ tins cream of chicken condensed soup with % cup of heavy cream in a double boiler top. Add sauteed vegetables and simmer sauce gently, adding a little milk if needed to thin sauce. Prepare the buttered toast strips; place them in a buttered shallow baking dish. Top with a neat slice of ham, and place half a sweetbread on the ham. For ease in serving, make four distinct portions—or prepare in individual ramekins.

Pour sauce over the ham-sweetbread mixture, sprinkle with parsley, and bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Because of their delicate flavor, wine can overpower sweet­breads, and no more than a tablespoon or two should ever be used in the sauce. The simplest preparation for sweet­breads (after blanching) is

RIZ DE VEAU CHEZ VOUS

2 pairs of blanched sweet-breads, cut in half

¼ pound melted butter

1 T white wine

1 T minced fresh parsley

¼ cup slivered or coarsely chopped Macadamia nuts or almonds

Place sweetbreads in a shallow greased baking dish, com­bine melted butter, wine and parsley, pour over sweetbreads, and bake 5 minutes in a 375 oven. Carefully turn over the sweetbreads, baste with the sauce, sprinkle with nuts, and bake another 5 to 10 minutes, or until nuts are lightly browned.

HAM

Ham is a very positive meat.

A slice of ham can be baked in practically anything, and the thinner the slice (though not less than ¾ inch), the quicker the cooking.

Ham goes with strong spices, such as cloves, allspice and nutmeg. It responds happily to a tin of any kind of fruit juice from papaya, to guava, to peach nectar; it also enjoys a milk bath, dusted with cloves ... or it can be combined with a tin of almost any kind of fruit (including the juice).

Pineapple is traditional but uninteresting to a gourmet; try tinned figs, or apricots, or boysenberries, or grape juice ... or anything at all but pineapple.

A slice of ham can be baked in beer or ale—or Coca Cola —but add ¼ cup of plain water to prevent any gummy residue that might toughen the ham slice.

Madeira wine and raisins go with baked ham, but other­wise a ham slice responds to few wine or butter basting sauces. You may use a split of champagne, if you like, but all the other wines and sauces are apt to be overpowered by the salt ham taste. Nevertheless, ham is a universal favorite—and a fine standby for the quick gourmet chef. Remember only: keep it moist, make it sweet or very plain; do not use delicate or subtle flavors in sauces because the salt in the ham will kill the taste.

To serve four people, you will need a 2-lb slice of ham . . . plus whatever juices or spices you choose . . . and simply bake in a 400 oven for 30 minutes.

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