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Larded Fillet of Beef
The tenderloin of beef which lies under the loin and rump is called fillet of beef. The fillet under the loin is known as the long fillet, and when removed no porterhouse steaks can be cut; therefore it commands a higher price than the short fillet lying under rump. Two short fillets are often skewered together, and served in place of a long fillet. Wipe, remove fat, veins, and any tendonous portions; skewer in shape, and lard upper side with grain of meat, following directions for larding on page 23. Place on a rack in small pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and put in bottom of pan small pieces of pork. Bake twenty to thirty minutes in hot oven, basting three times. Take out skewer, remove meat to hot platter, and garnish with watercress. Serve with Mushroom, Figaro, or Horseradish Sauce I.
This is a whole beef tenderloin roasted fast and served rare, with the period's standard fix for a lean cut: threading it with pork fat. Everything hinges on internal temperature, since twenty to thirty minutes is only correct for a hot oven and a rare centre.
- What to buyA "long fillet" is the full tenderloin, roughly 4-6 lb untrimmed, and a "short fillet" is the butt end from under the rump. Ask for a whole peeled tenderloin, or center-cut chateaubriand if you want even thickness without skewering two pieces together.
- Hot ovenRead this as roughly 425-450F. At that heat a trimmed tenderloin of 3-4 lb will reach rare in about 20-30 minutes, in line with the time the recipe gives; the book gives no weight-based rule.
- Cook to temperature, not timePull the meat at 120-125F in the thickest part for rare, 130F for medium-rare. Carryover heat adds several degrees while it rests, and the tapering tail end will always be more done than the center.
- LardingLarding means drawing strips of chilled pork fatback through the meat with a larding needle, along the grain of the upper side. Fatback is a special order in most places now; barding, tying sheets of fat or thin-sliced pork over the top, gives a similar effect with less equipment.
- "Small pieces of pork"Most likely salt pork or fat pork trimmings, laid in the pan to render and provide fat for basting. Unsalted pork belly or plain rendered lard both work; account for the salt if you use a cured version.
- Skewers and shapeThe skewer is there to hold the tapered tenderloin in an even cylinder. Butcher's twine at one-inch intervals does the job better, and the thin tail can be folded back and tied in rather than left to overcook.
- Rest before carvingThe original moves the meat straight to a hot platter. Give it 10 minutes loosely covered before slicing, or the juices run onto the platter instead of staying in the slices.
- Yield and sauceA whole tenderloin serves 8-10. Of the three sauces named, horseradish and mushroom are self-explanatory; Figaro is a hollandaise flavored with tomato and parsley, and needs to be made while the beef rests.
The opening paragraph is really a butchery lesson, and it explains the economics of a turn-of-the-century meat market: remove the long fillet and the porterhouse steaks disappear with it, so the butcher charges for both losses at once. Larding, the technique the title turns on, belongs to a period when beef was leaner and dry roasting a naturally lean muscle was a real risk. The practice faded through the twentieth century as marbled grain-finished beef became standard and as barding and bacon-wrapping proved easier. The sauce list is straightforwardly French-influenced hotel cookery, Figaro being a tomato-and-parsley variant of hollandaise that appears in the classic French repertoire.