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Fillet of Pork
Take pork tenderloin, split lengthwise on the side, place two cut parts together, filling with bread stuffing; bind with coarse thread to keep together; place in baking pan on bed of vegetables and spices, including one-half carrot, one-half onion, allspice and cloves; cover the meat with fat pork or bacon, place in hot oven top grate for ten minutes; return to lower oven, cook three-quarters of an hour, or until done, baste frequently with a little butter and water, garnish with stewed apples and cress.
A stuffed, barded pork tenderloin from the coal-range era, written for a cook who knew her oven by feel. The timings assume a much larger, tougher cut of pork than the tenderloin sold today.
- The hinge: don't cook it 45 minutesA modern pork tenderloin weighs about a pound and reaches 145F quickly; stuffed and tied it is thicker and will take longer, but nowhere near the 10 minutes plus three-quarters of an hour here. Three-quarters of an hour will leave it grey and dry. Cook to temperature, not to the clock -- the recipe's own "or until done" invites it -- and rest it 5-10 minutes.
- Stuffing temperatureAnything enclosed in the meat must reach 165F, which on so lean a cut usually means overshooting the pork itself. Cooking a shallow layer of stuffing, or baking the bulk of it alongside, avoids the conflict.
- "Hot oven, top grate" then "lower oven"The book does not define its heats; "hot" in this period generally means somewhere around 400-450F. The two positions indicate a high, close position first and a lower, gentler one after, whether that meant two compartments of a range or two rack heights. The effect is a hard initial browning followed by gentler roasting. In a modern oven, start high for 10 minutes, then drop to about 350F.
- Splitting and tying"Split lengthwise on the side" is a butterfly cut: slice nearly through and open the tenderloin flat. The "two cut parts" then close cut face to cut face around the stuffing, though the wording would also allow two loins laid together. Coarse thread means butcher's twine.
- Fat pork or baconThis is barding, not flavouring. Tenderloin has almost no fat of its own and dries out uncovered. Thin-sliced streaky bacon or fatback works; remove it for the last few minutes if you want colour on the meat.
- The bed of vegetablesHalf a carrot, half an onion and whole allspice and cloves form a trivet that keeps the meat off the pan and perfumes the drippings. Use whole spices, not ground, and no more than three or four cloves; they overwhelm quickly.
- BastingButter and water spooned over frequently is the period substitute for a covered pan. A tablespoon or two of water in the bottom of the pan and one or two bastings achieves the same thing with less oven-opening.
- CressWatercress, served raw as a garnish. Peppery salad leaves stand in adequately.
- YieldNo yield is given; a stuffed split tenderloin of this kind will serve about four.
"Fillet" here is the English rendering of the French filet, and the vocabulary suggests a writer working with professional restaurant terminology rather than plain kitchen speech, where the cut was more often simply "tenderloin." The technique on show is straightforwardly classical: bard the lean meat with pork fat, set it on a bed of aromatics that doubles as a trivet and a sauce base, sear hard and finish gently. Pork with apples is an old pairing across northern Europe, generally explained by the fact that both were autumn products of the same farmyard, pigs being slaughtered after the orchard harvest. The recipe's assumption that the reader can find the top and lower grates of her oven, judge "or until done" by eye, and produce bread stuffing without being told how, says a good deal about the cook it expected.