No. 1395

Minced Tenderloin of Beef a la Andrews

Emince de Filet de Boeuf a la Andrews

Pare and trim well all the fat from off a tenderloin, cut it lengthwise to obtain escalops or small slices an inch and a half in diameter by an eighth of an inch in thickness, the weight to be one ounce. Prepare the same quantity of veal kidney; cut it in pieces of the same thickness and one inch in diameter. Put an ounce of butter in a sautoir and when very hot and slightly browned, add the tenderloin and afterward the veal kidney. Cook them on a quick fire, seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice; serve on a very hot dish.

← No. 1394 Grenadins of Tenderloin with Sweet Peppers Beef No. 1396 Minced Tenderloin a la Beekman →

For the Modern Kitchen

A two-minute sauté that depends entirely on pan heat and on the kidney being fresh. There is nothing to hide behind, so the prep work has to be exact.

SautoirA straight-sided shallow sauté pan. A heavy skillet or stainless sauté pan is the equivalent; avoid nonstick, which will not brown at the heat this needs.
The hinge: heat and drynessThe butter must be hot and just turning nut-brown before the meat goes in, and the slices must be blotted dry. At an eighth of an inch, the beef cooks through in under a minute a side, and a cool or crowded pan will steam it grey instead of searing it.
Cutting the escalopsAn eighth of an inch thick and about an ounce each means coin-sized medallions, not steaks. Chill the trimmed tenderloin firm in the freezer for 20 minutes before slicing, and cut across the grain despite the instruction to cut lengthwise into the whole fillet.
Veal kidneyOrder it from a butcher; it is rarely in supermarket cases. Split it, cut out the hard white core and any fat lobes, and use it the day it is bought. Some cooks soak it 30 minutes in cold water or milk to soften the smell, though a genuinely fresh kidney does not need it.
Order of the panBeef first, kidney after, as written, and for good reason: kidney releases liquid and toughens fast. Two minutes total for the kidney, until it is firm and pink at the centre. Cooked to grey it turns granular and bitter.
Lemon juiceThe recipe lists it with the salt and pepper as the meat cooks, without saying when or how much. Adding it towards the end, off the direct flame, keeps it from boiling away and lets it lift the butter into a light sauce; a squeeze is enough.
Quantities and yieldThe recipe gives "the same quantity" of each with no total. Figure 4 oz beef and 4 oz kidney per person as a course.
ServingWarm the plates properly. Thin medallions in butter go tepid within a minute of leaving the pan, which is why the original insists on a very hot dish.

A Little History

Émincé in French kitchen usage means meat cut in thin slices, not minced in the English sense of ground, and the Anglicised title here is misleading to a modern eye. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894, filled the book with dishes named for the restaurant's patrons and public figures, and this pairing sits in a run of tenderloin preparations similarly labelled — Beekman, an old New York name, follows it directly. Veal kidney was a delicacy priced well above ordinary offal, so a plate that set it against tenderloin put two costly items together. Attributions of this kind in Ranhofer are generally taken as house tributes to regular customers, though the specific Andrews intended is not documented in the book itself.