Broiled Filet Or Porterhouse With Maitre D’hotel Butter

Cooking with Fire
Maitre d’hotel butter was one of the few compositions from the professional French chef’s repertoire simple enough to cross the line into American home cooking. A century and a half ago, it was the go-to accompaniment for tender grilled beefsteak, and it’s still fabulous today.
Period recommendations were to cut steaks a minimum of 3/4 of an inch thick, or up to twice as thick if preferred. Nineteenth-century cooks did not share the modern love for (some might say obsession with) grill marks on food, and did their best to avoid them. They might encase lamb chops in paper, or turn a filet mignon every ten seconds in an effort to keep the meat from getting those telltale lines. Although I don’t particularly care about grill marks, I am otherwise a product of my own times, and I do like a good sear on meat. My drill is to set it on a clean, super-hot grill and not touch it until turning in 4 or 5 minutes, and then, after a similar interval on the B-side, to remove it to a hot platter for a brief rest before serving.
Naturally, you needn’t have a cookstove to make this; any sort of grill or gridiron over hardwood coals will do.