RECIPE: Treacle-cured Chateaubriand
With red wine sauce, triple-cooked chips, and if you're feeling ambitious, a stuffed Portobello mushroom wrapped in caul fat.
A big welcome to all the new people who’ve joined! Super excited to have you here.
What I love about this recipe is that the best part - the Chateaubriand - is also by FAR the easiest to make and takes just 20 minutes of actual cooking. Maximum eating experience for minimum cooking effort!
I’m including recipes for red wine sauce, triple-cooked chips (that’s fries for my Americans friends), and the stuffed mushroom because they just go so well together, and because, per my last post, it’s not truly Chateaubriand unless there’s sauce and potatoes.
But honestly, you could serve this beef with oven chips, ketchup, and mustard, it would still be Chateaubriand, and it would still be amazing.
A few things I hope you’ll take away from this recipe:
How to make a butter reduction red wine sauce - It’s an effortless technique, and goes well with any red meat.
The magic of the sous vide - I’ll never stop preaching the wonders of a sous vide, and it truly shines here. I’ve included an oven alternative, but seriously, just get a sous vide and embrace the revolution.
An appreciation for caul fat - An overlooked and underused ingredient that’s also great if you want to be on trend with nose-to-tail, sustainable eating.
Demystifying the triple-cooked chip - It’s on every menu, but what exactly is it?
If you do try the recipe, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Happy cooking!
Treacle-cured Chateaubriand with triple-cooked chips, red wine sauce, and stuffed Portobello mushroom
Serves 2
Note: I’ve written the recipe as individual components so you can pick and choose what you make. There are 4 recipes here, so it’s a very long post! I’ve included a timing grid at the end that will help you get organised if you want to cook the full recipe. Lastly, there’s an equipment list at the bottom with links to what I use.
Treacle-cured Chateaubriand
Total time: 1 day / Active time: 20m
Equipment:
Sous vide (Oven alternative: roasting pan, meat thermometer)
Cast iron skillet or heavy frying pan
Large Ziploc bag or vacuum sealer bag
Ingredients:
600-800g beef fillet (aka tenderloin), preferably centre-cut
200ml black treacle - molasses are a perfectly fine substitute
100ml chicken stock
28g butter (2 tbsp) - doesn’t need to be exact
Quick note on chicken stock: Obviously homemade is best, but who has the time? I find the vast majority of stock cubes and stock pots are overwhelmingly salty, and kinda terrible. I use Knorr Chicken Bouillon Paste, which is by far the least salty product I’ve found so far, tastes very chicken-y, and comes in a tub so you can make whatever quantity you need. It’s a big tub (1kg, making 40 litres of stock), but it keeps for ages. Highly recommend.
Method:
Mix treacle and chicken stock in a measuring jug, and stir until fully mixed.
Place beef fillet in Ziploc bag, and pour treacle-stock mixture over beef fillet, ensuring it is well-covered by the marinade. Seal Ziploc bag, squeezing out all the air, and refrigerate for 24 hours.
Heat sous vide to 58°C (136°F)
Oven alternative: preheat oven to 60°C (140°F). If your oven doesn’t go that low, set it to the lowest temperature. Below 130°C (266°F) will be fine, but you’ll have to adjust some timings as the beef will cook faster.
Place Ziploc bag in sous vide for at least 1 hour (up to 4 hours is fine).
Oven alternative: remove beef fillet from bag, and reserve the marinade. Transfer beef to roasting tin, and cook in oven for 45 minutes (timing may vary), or until the centre registers 53°C (127°F) on a meat thermometer. Contemplate purchasing a sous vide.
Remove Ziploc bag from sous vide. Pour out marinade in a small saucepan, reseal the bag with the beef still in it, and return to the sous vide. Heat the marinade on medium - it should be bubbling, eventually thickening into a glaze. This should take around 10 minutes.
Oven alternative: turn off the oven, leaving the beef inside (it will continue to cook from internal heat). Heat the marinade as above.
Heat a cast iron skillet / heavy frying pan on medium-high heat. Add butter and heat until hot and foaming. Remove beef from Ziploc bag, pat dry with paper towels, and add to the hot pan.
Spoon the treacle glaze over the beef, turning ever 30 seconds with tongs to ensure the exterior is completely covered. Cook for 3-4 minutes; the glaze should be shiny and sticky. Remove, season with salt, and carve immediately.
Red wine sauce
Total time: 45m
Equipment:
Medium saucepan
Cheesecloth / muslin (optional but recommended)
Ingredients:
500ml chicken stock
100ml red wine - any cheapish medium-full bodied red is fine
1tsp redcurrant jelly - I use Tiptree
1 celery stick, roughly sliced
1 banana shallot (aka Echalion shallot), roughly sliced
40g frozen blueberries or blackberries - doesn’t need to be exact, it’s basically a small handful. You can use fresh berries too.
125g unsalted butter, cubed
Method:
Add all the ingredients EXCEPT the butter to a saucepan on medium and bring to a boil to make the sauce base. Reduce heat to a simmer until the sauce base has reduced by approximately a third.
Pass through a sieve lined with 4 layers of muslin into a bowl or jug. Cover and allow to cool to room temperature.
Measure out 250ml of sauce base and pour into a saucepan.
Add the cubed butter to the saucepan and heat on high until boiling. It should be bubbling fairly vigorously, like you’re making caramel. Turn down to medium; the bubbling will slow after about 10 minutes. The sauce should thicken and coat the back of a spoon.
Tricks & Techniques: this is where the magic happens - the bubbling emulsifies the sauce without any whisking or blending, resulting in a thick, luxurious sauce.
Troubleshooting: If you heat the sauce for too long, the emulsion can split - you’ll see separated layers of oil and watery sauce. Don’t panic, it’s because too much water has been boiled off. Add 4-5 tablespoons of cold water, give it a quick stir with a whisk, and heat it up again until it returns to the bubbling stage.
Pass through a sieve again, and serve immediately, or keep somewhere warm until ready to serve.
Triple-cooked chips
Developed by Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck from 1992-1995. The most important thing on this recipe is to be patient (which I usually am not).
Total time: 3h 15m / Active time: 1h 15m
Equipment:
Dutch oven or deep fryer
Long-handled strainer or slotted spoon
Ingredients:
2-3 large chipping potatoes - I like to use King Edward or Maris Piper potatoes
1.5-2L frying oil - Depends on the size of your vessel; aim to fill at least 6cm of oil. I use vegetable / rapeseed oil.
Method:
Peel the potatoes (or don’t, if you want skin-on chips), and cut into chips, around 1cm width.
Rinse the chips under running cold water for 3 minutes. It’s done when the water running through the chips is clear.
This washes off some of the surface starch to give a crisp, crunchy exterior.
Heat a large saucepan of salted water until boiling, then add the chips. Heat the pan back up to a simmer (takes 3-5 minutes). Simmer for another 10 minutes. The chips should be soft, offering little resistance when poked with a paring knife, but still hold their shape.
Drain onto a cooling rack or large colander, taking care not to break the chips. Let the chips air dry for 10 minutes, then transfer to the freezer and leave for 1 hour (anything from 45-90 minutes is fine).
Heat a Dutch oven or deep fryer with oil to 130°C (266°F). You’ll want to fry the chips in two batches to avoid the temperature dropping too much. Fry the chips for 7-9 minutes, giving it the occasional stir to avoid chips sticking to the bottom. It’s done when the bubbling has subsided, and the chips have formed a pale yellow crust.
Remove the chips using a strainer or slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels. Transfer back to the cooling rack or colander, and back into the freezer for 1 hour (again, 45-90 minutes is fine).
You can prepare to this stage in advance, and keep the chips in the fridge for 3 days, but then you’ll use twice the oil, or have a big pot of oil sitting around for 3 days.
Heat oil to 180°C (356°F) Again, work in two batches to maintain temperature. Fry for 6-7 minutes until golden brown and very crispy.
Use your hottest burner for maximum heat control. If the temperature starts to rise above 180°C, it’s fine to switch off the burners completely. The thermometer is always going to be behind the trend, so compensate for that when adjusting the heat.
Drain on paper towels and season with salt. Finely chopped parsley and/or finely grated Parmesan are also great additions.
I initially rushed this trying to make the full recipe under 2 hours (I couldn’t), which resulted in crispy-but-not-perfect chips. It annoyed me so I made a fresh batch of chips the next day. You can see the chips here are way crispier than the main picture up top.
Stuffed Portobello mushroom
One mushroom is sufficient as a side for two people, but you can easily scale this up.
Total time: 3h
Equipment:
Dutch oven or large ovenproof saucepan with lid
Small ovenproof dish or tray with high sides
Ingredients:
1 large Portobello mushroom, cleaned
400g diced chuck steak - braising / stewing steak is also fine
2 celery sticks, halved
1 medium onion, halved, leaving root intact, skins removed
500ml chicken stock - beef stock also works great
2 tbsp Stilton cheese, crumbled
Caul fat - Godfreys delivers in the UK
1 tbsp chives, finely chopped
Method:
Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F). Heat 1 tbsp oil in Dutch oven on medium-high, and brown the diced beef for 5-7 minutes, turning regularly to brown all sides. Remove to a plate.
Brown the onion halves and celery sticks for 2-3 minutes. Add back the beef, add the stock, and bring to a simmer (5 minutes).
Transfer to oven with the lid slightly ajar for 2 hours. The beef should be tender and easy to pull apart.
Fish out the onion and celery with tongs and discard. Strain the beef in a colander over a bowl, saving the braising liquid.
Roughly chop the beef, transfer to a bowl, and add a few spoonfuls of braising liquid if needed to moisten the chopped beef.
You will have more beef than you need - it works great the next day with tinned tomatoes, garlic and herbs to make a pasta sauce.
Assemble the mushroom. Start with the mushroom upside down. Add the crumbled Stilton under the gills. Then pile on the chopped beef to make a dome. Drape caul fat over the top of the mushroom, wrap all the way around the bottom, twist at the bottom to secure, and cut off with scissors.
Place the mushroom in a small ovenproof dish, and fill with the braising liquid until it reaches the rim of the mushroom. Place in the oven for 25 minutes, and using a spoon, baste the top of the mushroom with the braising liquid every 5 minutes.
If you need more time to do other things, the mushroom can stay in the oven longer for 10-15 extra minutes and it won’t be the end of the world.
Remove mushroom from the dish, top with the chopped chives, and serve.
Timing Grid
This grid is designed to help you plan your cooking if you’re making multiple components from the dish. The coloured blocks indicate active cooking time. The last 30 minutes are quite hectic, so it helps to visualise all the steps in advance, and/or enlist a second pair of hands.
If using the oven alternative, unless you have two ovens, you will need to remove the beef early - wrap it in foil and leave somewhere warm. Or y’know, just get a sous vide.
Equipment and Ingredients
Sous vide - Anova is the only brand I’ve used, and starts at £129 for the Nano. I have an old first gen Anova that’s still going strong. Amazon has cheaper options starting from £45, but I can’t attest to their quality. I know I’m a broken record, but a sous vide is truly one of the best pieces of kitchen equipment you can own - it makes guaranteed perfect food (it is a revelation for chicken breast and fish), and it saves a ton of time because you don’t have to watch it. If you need more convincing, Serious Eats has a great piece.
I also use a Rubbermaid 12L container with a hole I cut out of the lid. If I were buying a sous vide setup today, I’d get a sous vide-specific container (they didn’t exist back in the day). Anova-specific ones go for about £25 on Amazon.
Thermapen thermometer - Just trust me, bite the bullet, and pay the extra it costs over the cheap knockoff thermometers. This is one of those ‘Buy Nice or Buy Twice’ situations. Thermapen have a sale right now where it’s reduced to £30, and in addition, for every purchase, Thermapen will donate £10 to the NHS. At time of writing, it’s more expensive on Amazon.
Tamis sieve - I find these much more versatile than conical sieves, because you can push purées and thicker sauces through them more easily. Also great for sifting flour.
Sugar / deep frying thermometer - I never deep fry without one.
Cheesecloth / muslin - For whatever reason, cheesecloth pricing can vary wildly between products (2-3x more per square foot), so it helps to shop around. Cheesecloth can be washed in the washing machine and reused a few times.
Caul fat - A membrane that surrounds the internal organs of some animals, typically pigs. Traditionally used as a natural sausage casing, it’s a gem of an ingredient that allows food to be wrapped up to retain moisture, and boosts flavour as the fat melts away from the membrane.
Chicken bouillon - Better than stock cubes and stock pots, because it’s less salty, which gives you a lot more control over the final taste.
Dislaimer: this is a little awkward, but I want to be 100% transparent so that you can have full confidence in my recommendations. I get paid from Amazon links as part of the Amazon Associate program. I will always check to see if the same product is cheaper elsewhere. I don’t receive payment from any other websites I link to. I will only ever link to brands and products that I personally use.