# Escoffier Beef a la Cuiller



## orihara (May 18, 2014)

I have a 1941 edition of Escoffier's cookbook, and there is a recipe in there called Beef a la Cuiller. I have no clue how to even comprehend this recipe, would someone mind interpreting it for me? Because I'm lost: 

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Select a very square or oval cut of beef, and bear in mind, in selecting it, that it will have to be fashioned to the shape of a mould when it has been cooked. Tie it, and braise it, almost entirely covering it with moistening liquor. Set it to cook gently: remove the piece when the meat is still somewhat firm, and let it cool under a slight weight. This done, cut out the meat from the inside; leave a thickness of about half-inch around the sides and on the bottom, and the piece thus emptied should constitute a square or oval mould, in accordance with the shape originally adopted. Coat the outside of the whole piece with a mixture of beaten eggs and fine bread-crumbs, combined with Parmesan cheese; sprinkle melted butter over it with a brush, and put the case into a sufficiently hot oven to allow of a crust forming around it. Meanwhile chop up the meat extracted from the inside of the piece: add a little salted tongue, some braised slices of sweet-bread, and mushrooms; put the whole into a saucepan with a demi-glaze sauce, according to the requirements, and heat this garnish.


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## grande (May 14, 2014)

Take a flat piece of meat, say, a whole flank maybe, or the flat part of a brisket, braise it, then cool it with something on top so it flattens out. When its cool you cut out a circle of meat so that you have a braised meat "frame". The circle of meat you cut out, chop up, & mix with the other stuff he mentions. The "frame" you bread and cook so it is crispy. Then you put it on a tray and serve the mixture of braised meat, toungue, sweetbreads, & demi glace in the middle so it presents like an edible serving dish.


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