No. 1382

Chateaubriand Maitre d'Hotel Sauce, Thickened

Chateaubriand Sauce Maitre d'Hotel Liee

Prepare and cook a Chateaubriand as for No. 1380, lay it on a dish; reduce some veloute (No. 415) with white wine; add a little meat glaze (No. 402), and incorporate into it when ready to serve some maitre d'hotel butter (No. 581). Cover the whole Chateaubriand with this, and garnish the dish with potatoes prepared as follows: Cut up some potatoes into large six-sided olive shapes; first blanch, then finish to cook in clarified butter or else in lard over a good fire, keeping them covered until they become soft and browned; drain off the fat and put in some small pieces of fresh butter, salt and chopped parsley, serve as a garnishing.

← No. 1381 Chateaubriand, Colbert Sauce Beef No. 1383 Double Chateaubriand, Two and a half Pounds →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already has stock, velouté and glaze standing by, so most of this recipe lives in its cross-references. Here is what each one is and how to close the gaps.

The cutA chateaubriand is the thick centre section of the beef tenderloin, trimmed and cut for two or more; Ranhofer's neighbouring entry sizes a "double" at two and a half pounds, so a single is roughly 1 to 1 1/4 lb. Grill or pan-roast to about 125-130F internal for rare to medium-rare, then rest ten minutes before saucing.
Velouté (No. 415)A white roux slackened with veal or chicken stock and simmered until smooth and glossy. About 1 cup, reduced with 1/2 cup dry white wine to roughly two-thirds, is enough for one chateaubriand.
Meat glaze (No. 402)Glace de viande: brown stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. A tablespoon is plenty; commercial glace or a reduced demi-glace concentrate stands in directly. It is for colour and depth, not body.
Maitre d'hotel butter (No. 581)Butter creamed with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Beat it into the sauce off the heat, in pieces, at the last moment. If the sauce boils after the butter goes in it will break and the parsley will turn drab.
"Liee" and the point of itThe word simply means thickened. This is the finished, coating version of the sauce, meant to be poured over the whole piece rather than served under it, so it wants to be thick enough to cling but still pour.
The potatoesTurned potatoes of the kind later standardised as pommes chateau: Ranhofer specifies large six-sided olive shapes (modern practice more often turns them to seven faces). Blanch them briefly, then cook covered in clarified butter or lard until tender and browned. Covering them is what steams them through before the outsides overcolour.
Fat and finishClarified butter is safer than whole butter at the heat wanted here, since the milk solids scorch. Drain thoroughly before tossing with fresh butter, salt and parsley, or the seasoning slides off.
YieldOne chateaubriand with this garnish will serve two generously, or three at a table with several other courses.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and its beef chapter reads like a catalogue of the ways one cut can be dressed: Colbert, maitre d'hotel, bearnaise, each numbered and cross-referenced so a cook could assemble a service from parts already on the stove. The chateaubriand itself is traditionally traced to the household of the writer and diplomat Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand in the 1820s, the name said to attach to a thick centre-cut of fillet grilled for two, though the story is culinary lore rather than documented history. What is characteristic of this book is the layering: a mother sauce, a reduction, a glaze and a compound butter, four separate preparations behind a single spoonful, which tells you how many hands were working behind a Delmonico's dining room.