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Tenderloin of Beef
Select a good tenderloin of beef, wipe well, and remove all fat, veins and tough portions, trimming into shape. Lard the upper side, and dredge with salt, pepper and flour, putting several pieces of pork into the pan, under the meat, and bake in a hot oven for twenty to thirty minutes. If preferable, the pork may be omitted and a fat piece of the beef used in its stead. Serve the meat with mushroom sauce, or brush the tenderloin with beaten egg and sprinkle seasoned breadcrumbs over it, or stuff the incisions made by removing the veins and tendons with forcemeat, and dredge with salt and flour.
A whole trimmed tenderloin roasted hot and fast. The recipe assumes you know when beef is done by eye; a thermometer removes the guesswork, and with a tapered cut like this it is the difference between a good roast and a ruined one.
- The hinge: internal temperatureTwenty to thirty minutes in a hot oven suits a modest trimmed centre-cut piece rather than a whole tenderloin; the recipe gives no weight, so judge by the meat. Pull it at 125-130F in the thickest part for rare to medium-rare; the thin tail end will always be several degrees ahead, so either tuck and tie it under or accept that it feeds the people who want theirs well done.
- "A hot oven"425-450F. A tenderloin has almost no connective tissue to break down, so high heat and short time are correct here; a slow oven would grey it through before any crust formed.
- Larding and the porkLarding means threading strips of fatback through the meat with a larding needle, which few kitchens own. Barding achieves nearly the same thing: lay thin sheets of salt pork or unsmoked bacon over the top and remove them for the last five minutes so the surface can brown.
- TrimmingBeyond fat and the chain muscle, remove the silverskin — the pearly membrane along one side. It does not render and will contract and bow the roast in the oven.
- "Stuff the incisions with forcemeat"Forcemeat here is a seasoned ground mixture, usually veal or pork with breadcrumbs and herbs. It fills the channels left by pulling out tendons. If you use it, remember that a raw pork stuffing needs to reach 160F, which is far past where the beef should be; a cooked mushroom duxelles is the more practical filling.
- The breadcrumb variantEgg wash and crumbs will not brown in the same time as the meat unless applied late. Roast most of the way, brush and crumb, then finish under the broiler for a minute or two.
- RestingTen to fifteen minutes under loose foil before carving. The recipe does not mention it.
- YieldA full tenderloin runs 4-6 lb untrimmed and serves eight to ten; allow about 6 oz of trimmed meat per person.
Oscar Tschirky was never formally the chef of the Waldorf — he was the maître d'hôtel — but his 1896 Cook Book collected the house repertoire. In the New York restaurant world of the 1890s, shaped by Delmonico's and copied upward by hotels, filet of beef was the prestige roast: expensive, quick to cook, and mild enough to carry whatever sauce the kitchen wished to show off. The instruction to lard it reflects a real difference in the meat. Larding and barding were routine for lean cuts before refrigeration and modern feeding practice, and the alternative offered here — using "a fat piece of the beef" in place of pork — is the sort of frugal substitution that survived from domestic cookery into even the grandest hotel kitchen. Three finishes are tacked on at the end.