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Broiled Fillet of Beef
Cut slices about two inches thick from fillet. Shape in circles. Place on greased broiler and broil over hot coals from four to six minutes, turning every ten seconds. Serve on hot platter; garnish with slices of broiled tomato and brown mushroom sauce.
A three-line recipe that assumes a hardwood or charcoal fire and a hinged gridiron. Almost everything worth saying is about heat and thickness.
- The cut"Fillet" here is the beef tenderloin, and a two-inch slice from it is what a butcher now calls filet mignon or tournedos. Ask for center-cut pieces so they are of even thickness.
- Shape in circlesTenderloin slices sag out of round on the grill. Tie a length of kitchen twine around the circumference of each before cooking and cut it off before serving.
- "Broil over hot coals"This is grilling in modern terms: a direct fire, grate close to the coals. A domestic overhead broiler set as high as it goes and preheated for a good ten minutes is the nearest indoor equivalent, though it will not give the same crust.
- Turning every ten secondsNot an eccentricity. Frequent turning keeps either face from overheating and cooks the interior more evenly, and modern testing has borne it out. It also demands tongs and constant attention for the whole four to six minutes.
- DonenessFour to six minutes at two inches thick gives a rare center. If you want a number, pull at 125-130F for rare to medium-rare; a two-inch filet climbs several degrees while it rests.
- RestingThe original says nothing about it. Give the steaks five minutes on the warmed platter before they meet the sauce, or the juices run into the mushroom sauce and thin it.
- Broiled tomatoHalve firm tomatoes crosswise, season, dot with butter, and put them on the grate or under the broiler while the beef rests. They want six to eight minutes, not the four to six the beef gets.
- Brown mushroom sauceA period brown sauce is an espagnole or a beef-stock gravy with sautéed mushrooms folded in. Make it before the meat goes on the fire; there is no time for it afterward.
- YieldOne two-inch round per person, roughly 6-8 oz. A whole trimmed tenderloin gives six to eight such slices plus the tail and head, which are better used elsewhere.
Lowney's Cook Book was written by Maria Willett Howard and issued by the Walter M. Lowney Company, the Boston chocolate manufacturer, as a general household cookbook that happened to promote its cocoa in the sweets chapters. The meat section is straight turn-of-the-century American genteel cooking, and a whole beef tenderloin sliced into thick rounds was among the most expensive things a home cook could put on a gridiron. Broiling in 1907 meant a fire, not an oven element: a coal or wood range gave hot coals, and the cook worked a hinged wire broiler over them by hand, which is why the instruction to turn every ten seconds could be written without apology. Broiled tomato and brown mushroom sauce was one of the common period restaurant treatments for tournedos, and the whole plate reads as a hotel dish scaled down for a household with a good range and someone willing to stand over it.