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Braised Larded Tenderloin of Beef
Place in a saucepan a larded tenderloin of beef, pour over it a glassful or so of white wine, a little brandy, and some rich stock, adding an onion and carrot cut into thick slices, a bunch of thyme and parsley, and bay leaf, salting and peppering to taste. Place on the fire and boil quickly, skimming it thoroughly, and remove to the side and simmer gently until the meat is done. Put the joint on a dish, skim and strain the liquor, and reduce it; after which warm the whole at the side of the fire for ten minutes, without boiling, and serve, pouring the gravy around the beef.
A French braise written for a coal range, where a cook could move a pan from the hot centre to the cooler edge at will. The whole thing turns on not overcooking a cut that has almost no connective tissue to gain from long stewing.
- Larding, and whether to botherLarding means threading strips of firm pork back fat through the lean meat with a larding needle, which is what keeps a trimmed tenderloin from drying out. Butchers rarely offer it now; barding the roast in a sheet of fatback or bacon, tied on, gets you most of the way.
- A glassfulThe wineglassful of period cookery books is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz, but the recipe's 'a glassful or so' is deliberately loose; anything from 2 to 6 oz of dry white will work, with a splash of brandy for the 'little' called for.
- Tenderloin is not a braising cutThere is no collagen here to melt, so time in the liquid does nothing but dry the meat. Treat the liquid as a flavour bath and cook to temperature, not to the clock: pull the joint at 125-130F internal for rare to medium rare.
- "Simmer gently" means barely movingOn a modern burner, keep the surface at a lazy shiver, around 180F. A rolling simmer will squeeze the meat tight. The recipe is written for a range top, but a covered pot in a low oven (about 275-300F) is a modern way to hold that heat more evenly.
- "Remove to the side of the fire"The cool edge of a range top, used twice in this recipe: once to bring the braise down from the boil, and again at the end to warm meat and sauce through without a bubble. Your lowest burner setting, or a turned-off oven with the door ajar, does the same job.
- The initial hard boilIt is there to drive scum to the surface where it can be lifted off, which is what gives the finished sauce clarity. Skim before you drop the heat, not after.
- Reducing the liquorAfter straining, boil it down hard until it coats a spoon; expect to lose half or more. A whole trimmed tenderloin gives up very little gelatine, so a well-made stock is doing all the body-building here.
- YieldA trimmed tenderloin of 4 to 5 lb serves eight to ten. Let it rest ten minutes before carving into thick slices across the grain.
Oscar Tschirky was maitre d'hotel at the Waldorf from its opening in 1893, and the 1896 cook book that carries his name draws heavily on the classical French repertoire as it was practised in a large American hotel kitchen. This is a boeuf braise in miniature: the aromatic garnish of onion, carrot and a bunch of herbs, the wine and brandy poured over the meat, and the finish -- straining and reducing the cooking liquor into its own sauce -- are all standard to the method. Larding with a needle was routine professional work at the time, which may be why the recipe gives no instruction for it. The brevity of the instructions suggests a reader already familiar with braising.