No. 1398

Minced Tenderloin of Beef with Potato Croquettes

Emince de Filet de Boeuf aux Croquettes de Pommes

Cut into thin slices the best part of a cold roast tenderloin, to weigh about four ounces, then pare them to make them of an even size. Heat some butter in a small saucepan, add to it two teaspoonfuls of finely chopped onions, also four spoonfuls of chopped mushrooms. When the moisture from the mushrooms has evaporated wet them with four spoonfuls of Marsala wine, reduce again to half, then thicken with a half-glaze sauce (No. 413). Heat the slices of beef between two dishes with the addition of a little clear gravy (No. 404), not allowing it to boil. If the tenderloin was previously braised instead of roasted, then the meat should be cut thicker, and heated in the sauce for twenty five minutes without boiling; arrange it on a dish either in one or two rows, and cover with the sauce. Surround the meat with potato croquettes (No. 2782), formed into balls of an inch in diameter and flattened.

← No. 1397 Minced Tenderloin, Creole Style Beef No. 1399 Minions of Tenderloin of Beef—Plain →

For the Modern Kitchen

A leftovers dish dressed for a Delmonico's table: cold roast tenderloin reheated gently in a mushroom-Marsala demi-glace. Everything depends on keeping the sauce below a simmer.

Never let it boilAlready-cooked tenderloin re-boiled quickly turns grey and stringy. Ranhofer's "heat the slices between two dishes" is usually taken to mean covering them and setting them over hot water rather than on direct heat; a wide pan of barely steaming water with the plated slices above it does the same job.
SpoonfulsBy the usual convention of the period, an unqualified "spoonful" is taken as a tablespoon, and the recipe does name teaspoonfuls separately. On that reading: 2 teaspoons chopped onion, 4 tablespoons chopped mushroom, 4 tablespoons Marsala.
Half-glaze sauceNo. 413 is Ranhofer's half-glaze, i.e. a reduced brown sauce. A good reduced veal or beef stock, thick enough to coat a spoon, stands in acceptably; the recipe gives no quantity, so use only enough to bind the mushrooms.
Clear gravyNo. 404 is a clear, unthickened brown stock, not the pan gravy of a home roast. Use a spoonful or two of degreased beef stock to moisten the slices.
MarsalaRanhofer does not say which Marsala; dry (secco) suits the sauce better to modern taste, as a sweet one can read as cloying against the half-glaze. Reduce it by half as directed.
Braised versus roasted meatThe twenty-five-minute version applies only to previously braised tenderloin, which is denser and cut thicker. Sliced cold roast beef needs a few minutes at most.
YieldFour ounces of pared meat reads as a single portion, and the sauce quantities appear scaled to match, though the recipe does not state servings. Scale by the person.
The croquettesNo. 2782 is Ranhofer's potato croquette preparation, breaded and fried. Here they are made small, an inch across and pressed flat, so they cook through quickly and sit neatly around the rim.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some thirty years associated with Delmonico's in New York, and the book's scale — several thousand numbered recipes, cross-referenced to each other — reflects a professional kitchen where the base sauces were always standing ready. An émincé is simply meat cut in thin slices, and the form belongs to the frugal end of the repertoire: a way of serving yesterday's roast tenderloin by reheating it in a fresh mushroom-and-Marsala sauce rather than cooking new meat. The refusal to let the sauce boil is the whole technique. The ring of fried potato croquettes is period plating convention: a hot garnish that gave the dish height and crispness, and one more use for the standing potato mixture.