Is Steak au Poivre supposed to be spicy?

[mretzloff]

Sorry if this is the wrong area to post this.

Anyway, I made myself Steak au Poivre for lunch today. It tasted like something you'd eat in a Mexican restaurant, because of the spice. Now I'm no expert on French cooking, so I have no idea.

The recipe (from Mark Bittman's "The Best Recipes in the World") called for 2 TBL freshly ground pepper, and to press the pepper into the steak (I used NY strip). I lightly coated the steak in pepper and then rubbed and pressed the pepper into it.

Is it supposed to be spicy? Or did I just use too much pepper?

[mark1]

Too many variables here, "too spicy" is a personal perception, so if you thought it was too spicy for you, then it was.
Two Tbls of pepper seems more than needed, but it would depend on the size of the steak and that the pepper was pressed on both sides of it.
Also many steak au poivre recs come with a red wine reduction sauce that would dilute the spiciness.
Try it again and let us know your next experiment.

[chefelle]

Hi MRetzloff! I just happen to have that cookbook so I went and grabbed it to take a look at the recipe.

If you read the preface to it-it does say that some people find the crispy crust formed by pressing the cracked pepper into the meat to be too overwhelming. The recipe reads:
2 tbsp freshly cracked pepper, more or less

So I would take it to mean that you definitely prepared it properly as Bittman seems to indicate it should have some bite to it but that perhaps it was a bit overpowering for your personal taste. Try it again but decrease the amount of pepper to see if you can get precisely how you like it.

[lebelage]

True, to many people pepper is spicy. Whereas to me, I've rarely had anything in a Mexican restaurant I found to be spicy (unfortunately as I really enjoy heat).

au Poivre is supposed to have a bit of a bite. As Mark1 suggested, the size of your steak and serving with a sauce are factors. Another factor is the grind of the pepper. For au Poivre the pepper is supposed to be very coursely ground. 2TB of finely ground pepper is a lot more pepper than 2TB coarsely ground.

[Derek Cooks]

One of my favorite preparations! But like Lebelage, I've rarely found anything to be too hot.

As the others have said, heat is relative. I had a guest at our B&B once that complained about the heat, when all I had was a touch of ground pepper on the steak - my standard mix of 80-20 salt/white pepper.

So by all means try it again if you'd like. Remember that almost all recipes are suggestions, not rules (except in baking/pastry).

[mretzloff]

Does the pepper literally make a crust (such as battered fish)?


What type of sauce does Steak au Poivre usually come with? mark1 said a wine reduction but this one came with a heavy cream with Dijon mustard and shallot sauce.

I think the problem was that I use finely ed pepper. I'll try course pepper next time, and maybe thicker steaks (these were small, but my mom payed for them, so eh. free steaks).

[lebelage]

There are a few that are traditional.

Bearnaise
Red wine sauce
Compound butter
Green peppercorn
Cognac pan sauce

are the most common

[mark1]

And yes you must use coarse ground pepper, and no, it doesn't make a crust like batter on fish.

[lebelage]

mmmmmmm... chicken fried steak- au poivre

[Derek Cooks]

Cognac pan sauce

Instant drool here.

For me, I like the peppercorns more "cracked" than ground. "Chunky" would describe it better.

[mark1]

mmmmmmm... chicken fried steak- au poivre

What do you call that, "soul-mex"!

[romanticf16]

You shouldn't be using ground pepper at all. You ahould take the peppercorns and crush them with the curved portion of a small frypan-work in small portions to avoid sending pepper all over the room. This is meant to be a coarse crush, much of which will fall off in the cooking process.

[Fincher]

I like mine somewhere between a course grind and crushed. I don't like biting into huge chunks, but I don't like it too fine either. A stone marble and pestle is my prefered medium to "grind" the peppercorns with.

At the restaurant I made a Canadian version that Tom called "Steak Au Poivre Eh?"

three peppercorns crushed then instead of cognac we used a fine Canadian rye. We also used a splash of demi in the sauce.

[Harborwitch]

We like them with 4 color peppercorns, or I'll toast the black peppercorns before crushing in the mortar and pestle. We love a bourbon/green peppercorn sauce with heavy cream I used to make on them. Man, this is bringing up memories - I'm drooling and there's a huge ol' porterhouse in the freezer, hmmmmm.

[sophia]

That's what I noticed. He said he used ground pepper; the recipe calls for cracked pepper - all the difference in the world.

I've never thought steak au poivre was too spicy, but it is always made with cracked pepper, not ground.