No. 1401

Minions of Tenderloin of Beef a la Cheron

Mignons de Filet de Boeuf a la Cheron

Prepare and cook the minions as explained in the plain (No. 1399). Cover the bottom of a dish with a bearnaise sauce (No. 433), sprinkle over with some chopped parsley, and lay the minions on top, and on each one set an artichoke bottom slightly smaller than the minion, and previously cooked and sauted in butter. Garnish with a little macedoine thickened with veloute (No. 415), and fine butter, and season well.

← No. 1400 Minions of Tenderloin of Beef a la Baillard Beef No. 1402 Minions of Tenderloin of Beef a la Dumas →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a brigade that already knows the base preparations, so most of the work here is in the cross-references. Once the béarnaise and the artichoke bottoms are ready, the dish assembles in a minute or two.

What a mignon isMedallions cut from the tenderloin, trimmed round and often lightly flattened; thickness and diameter varied from kitchen to kitchen. Ranhofer sends the reader to the "plain" preparation (No. 1399) for the cooking, which is not reproduced here and should be checked there. Two per person is a reasonable main-course portion.
Cook to temperature, not to the clockThe whole point of tenderloin medallions is that they are quick and lean. Pull them at 125-130F internal for medium rare; past 140F the cut has no fat to protect it and turns dry and mealy. Rest three or four minutes before plating.
The béarnaise is the hingeIt goes under the meat, not over, so it has to be thick enough to hold a coat on the plate and warm enough not to chill the beef. Hold it warm rather than hot, around 130 to 140F in a bain-marie; much hotter and the eggs will curdle, cooler and it stiffens and separates. Make it last and use it within the hour.
Artichoke bottomsFresh globe artichokes trimmed to the fond, cooked in acidulated water, then sautéed in butter. Good-quality tinned or frozen bottoms are an honest substitute today, though only the tinned sort would have been available in Ranhofer's day; drain, dry thoroughly, and brown them in butter or they will weep onto the sauce.
MacédoineA mixture of vegetables cut in small even dice — classically carrot, turnip, green beans and peas — each cooked separately so nothing overcooks, then bound. Cut everything to about ¼ inch.
Velouté (No. 415)A white stock thickened with blond roux; for beef service use a veal velouté rather than chicken if you have it. "Thickened with velouté and fine butter" means bound with just enough sauce to coat, then finished off the heat with cold butter whisked in. It should cling to the dice, not pool.
Assembly and heatWarm the platter. Sauce the base, scatter the parsley, set the medallions down, crown each with its artichoke bottom, and add the macédoine as garnish; the recipe does not say how it is arranged. Everything must be plated hot and served at once — this is a dish that dies waiting.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of his years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry is typical of how the book works: a single paragraph that assumes the reader can already turn out a béarnaise, a velouté and a tray of artichoke bottoms, and that treats the dish as one variation in a long numbered run of tenderloin medallions — Baillard before it, Dumas after. Garnishes of that period were codified by name, and à la Chéron is one of them; who or what the name honours is not documented, though the combination of artichoke bottoms, a macédoine of vegetables and béarnaise was fixed enough that a cook of the day needed only the title to know what would arrive on the plate. The tenderloin's rise to the centre of the American restaurant menu belongs to exactly this era: expensive, portion-controlled, quick to fire to order, and a natural stage for the elaborate garnish work that justified a Delmonico's bill.