No. 1392

Grenadins of Tenderloin with Celery, Bechamel

Grenadins de Filet de Boeuf au Celeri, Bechamel

Prepare and cook the grenadins, as for plain (No. 1384). Cut in quarter of an inch squares some tender and white celery; blanch it in plenty of salted water, drain and dry well; then fry them in butter without browning. Moisten with broth (No. 194a), and when cooked, mix in a little bechamel (No. 409), and fresh cream. Reduce, pour it on a dish, and arrange the glazed grenadins on top.

← No. 1391 Grenadins of Tenderloin, Previllot Beef No. 1393 Grenadins of Tenderloin with Round Potatoes, →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already has the base preparations standing by, so the value here is in decoding the cross-references and the one technique that carries the dish: a celery purée-sauce loose enough to pool but tight enough to hold the meat.

What a grenadin isA grenadin is a thick medallion cut from the tenderloin, usually larded with strips of salt pork or bacon fat and then braised and glazed rather than grilled. Cut them about 1 to 1 1/4 inches thick; two per person makes a reasonable service.
The referenced preparationsNo. 1384 is the plain version of the grenadins; No. 194a is a broth and No. 409 a bechamel. A good unsalted beef stock and a stiff modern bechamel (2 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp flour, 1 cup milk) stand in cleanly.
Glazing"Glazed" here means basting the medallions in their own reduced braising liquid over heat until it coats them in a mahogany film. It is not a broiler step and it is not a sugar glaze.
Blanching the celeryTwo to three minutes in heavily salted boiling water, then a thorough drain and a spell on a towel. Wet celery will not take on butter and will thin the finished sauce. Use the pale inner ribs; the outer stalks are stringy and green-tasting.
Without browningSweat the diced celery in butter over low heat with the pan lid ajar. Any browning turns the sauce grey-beige and adds a caramel note that fights the béchamel. This is the hinge of the dish.
Quantities to work fromThe original gives none. For four people: about 3 cups diced celery, 3 tbsp butter, 1 cup broth, 1/2 cup béchamel, 1/4 cup cream. Reduce until a spoon drawn through the pan leaves a track that closes slowly.
DonenessBraised grenadins were served cooked through, not rare. If you prefer them pink, sear and finish them to 130–135F internal and glaze off the heat with reduced stock; a full braise on a tenderloin medallion will dry it.
ServingThe celery sauce goes down first as a bed, the glazed medallions on top. It wants nothing else on the plate beyond potatoes.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and its beef chapter runs through dozens of near-identical tenderloin medallions distinguished only by their garnish — with celery and béchamel here, with round potatoes in the next entry, à la Previllot in the one before. That structure is the point: a nineteenth-century luxury restaurant sold variation, and a larder holding one braise, one béchamel and one broth could generate a whole page of menu items. Celery earned its place because in the 1890s it was still a prestige vegetable in America, blanched under soil or boards to keep the ribs pale and mild, sold by the bunch in cut-glass celery vases and set on the table as a dish in its own right. Cooking it down into a cream sauce for tenderloin was an expensive gesture that a diner of the period would have read as such.