classical dishes of the French table, that
to a Frenchman luxury can go no further; but every one does not know how
entirely within his power it is to have that dish as often as he has
roast beef; how convenient it would be to so have it. Here it is: When
your sirloin roast comes from the butcher, take out the tenderloin or
fillets, which you must always choose thick; cut it across into steaks
an inch thick, trim them, cover them with a coat of butter (or oil,
which is much better), and broil them ten minutes, turning them often;
garnish with fried potatoes, and serve with _sauce Chateaubriand_, as
follows: Put a gill of white wine (or claret will do if you have no
white) into a saucepan, with a piece of glaze, weighing an ounce and a
half; add three quarters of a pint of _espagnole_, and simmer fifteen
minutes; when ready to serve, thicken with two ounces of _maitre
d'hotel_ butter in which a dessert-spoonful of flour has been worked.
That is how Jules Gouffe's recipe runs; but, as no small family will
keep _espagnole_ ready made, allow a little more glaze (of course the
recipe as given may be divided to half or quarter, provided the correct
proportions are retained), and use a tablespoonful of roux and the
_maitre d'hotel_ butter, both of which you have probably in your
store-room; if not, brown a little flour, chop some parsley, and add to
two ounces of butter; work them together, then let them dissolve in the
sauce, for which purpose let it go off the boil; let the sauce simmer a
minute, skim, and serve.

The sirloin of beef, denuded of its fillet, is still a good roast; and
as you can't have your cake and eat it too, and hot fresh roast beef is
better than the same warmed over, warm ye never so wisely, I think this
plan may commend itself to those who like nice _little_ dinners.

A nice little dinner of a soup, an _entree_, or made dish, salad, and
dessert, really costs no more than frequent roast meat, or even steak
and pudding, by following some such plan as this:

Sunday.--_Pot-au-feu_ and roast lamb, leg of mutton or other good joint,
etc.

Monday.--Rice or vermicelli soup made with remains of the _bouillon_
from _pot-au-feu_. If the Sunday joint was a fore or hindquarter of lamb
it should have been divided, say the leg from the loin, thus providing
choice roasts for two days, and yet having enough cold lamb--that
favorite dish with so many--for luncheon with a salad; and, surprising
to say, after hot roas