No. 1388

Grenadins of Tenderloin As Venison, Poivrade Sauce

Grenadins de Filet de Boeuf en Chevreuil, Sauce Poivrade

Trim some slices of tenderloin, cut lengthwise, and shape them in half-heart forms. Marinate them for three days in a cooked and cold marinade (No. 114). Drain and dry them, then fry in an omelet pan in hot clarified fat on a very quick fire. When done rare, drain and lay them on slices of bread fried in butter, cut the same size and shape. Pour over a poivrade sauce (No. 522.)

← No. 1387 Grenadins of Tenderloin a la Halevy Beef No. 1389 Grenadins of Tenderloin Marc Aurele →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's cross-references do most of the work here, so the recipe reads as three lines when it is really a three-day project. The hinge is the marinade: it is what makes beef taste like venison, and it must be cooked, cooled completely, and kept cold for the full three days.

What a grenadin isA small, thick, neatly trimmed slice cut from the tenderloin, here shaped into half-heart forms as the recipe directs. Ranhofer gives no thickness and no yield, so judge the size by the fried-bread bases you cut to match.
"En chevreuil"Chevreuil is roe deer. The phrase means "in the manner of venison" — the beef is not venison and is not pretending to be a different cut, it is simply marinated and sauced as game would be.
The cooked marinade (No. 114)Ranhofer's cooked marinade is a wine-and-vinegar liquid simmered with aromatic vegetables and herbs, then cooled completely before use. Any comparable cooked game marinade of that type will do; keep it acidic enough to taste sharp.
Three days means three days refrigeratedCool the marinade fully before it touches the meat and keep the whole thing at refrigerator temperature, turning the pieces daily. The original assumed a cold larder; a room-temperature three-day marinade is not something to reproduce.
Dry them properlyDrain and blot the grenadins thoroughly on cloth or paper. Wet, acid-soaked meat will steam rather than brown, and the surface sugars from the wine will scorch unevenly if the pan is wet.
"Omelet pan" and "very quick fire"A heavy shallow skillet over high heat. The recipe calls for hot clarified fat; clarified butter, clarified beef fat or ghee all suit, since whole butter burns at that temperature. Two to three minutes a side is enough for rare — pull them at about 125-130F internal, as overcooked tenderloin turns dry and grainy.
The croutonsCut the fried-bread bases to the same half-heart shape before frying so they sit under the meat exactly. Fry them ahead in butter until crisp and keep them warm; soggy croutons undo the dish.
Poivrade sauce (No. 522)A peppery brown sauce of the classical type: mirepoix with vinegar and wine reduced into a brown sauce, strained, with crushed pepper added late so it stays pungent rather than bitter. Have it made and hot before the meat goes in the pan — this is a dish assembled in two minutes.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of what he cooked in some thirty years as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry sits in a run of tenderloin variations — Halevy, Marc Aurele, en chevreuil — that show how a nineteenth-century restaurant kitchen spun a single expensive cut into a long carte. Dressing beef en chevreuil was a recognised French preparation: a cooked wine-and-vinegar marinade, followed by a sharp poivrade, gives beef the acid edge and peppery finish diners associated with game. Genuine venison was seasonal, and American game laws were tightening in this period, so a year-round substitute had obvious appeal for a restaurant, though Ranhofer does not say so. The half-heart shape and the matching fried croutons are service logic — identical silhouettes plate fast for a large dining room.