No. 1403

Minions of Tenderloin of Beef a la Fearing

Mignons de Filet de Boeuf a la Fearing

After the minions are prepared and cooked the same as for plain (No. 1399), lay them on round flat poached quenelles of chicken forcemeat mixed with cooked fine herbs (No. 385), the same size as the minions, and a quarter of an inch thick. Glaze the minions with meat glaze (No. 402), and garnish around with a garnishing prepared as follows: Put some financiere sauce (No. 464) into a saucepan, add balls of game forcemeat half an inch in diameter, some olives, mushrooms, artichoke bottoms divided into six pieces, a few cocks'-combs, or beef palates cut the same shape as the cocks'-combs, cock's-kidneys, and whole truffles.

← No. 1402 Minions of Tenderloin of Beef a la Dumas Beef No. 1404 Minions of Tenderloin of Beef a la Meyerbeer →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is an assembly recipe: Ranhofer assumes you have already read half a dozen other numbered entries in The Epicurean. Nothing here is difficult, but almost every component is a cross-reference, and several of them are no longer sold.

What a "minion" isMignons de filet are small rounds cut from the tenderloin, essentially the modern filet mignon. No. 1399 is the plain version, cooked and served undressed; here they are cooked the same way and then dressed. Cook to an internal 125-130F for rare to medium-rare and rest them while you finish the garnish.
The quenelle base is the hingeEach round of beef sits on a poached disc of chicken forcemeat cut to the same diameter and a quarter inch thick. Poach the forcemeat in a buttered shallow pan of barely trembling water or stock — at a true simmer it will puff and break. Chill it, then cut the discs with the same ring you used to judge the meat so the two match.
Fine herbsNo. 385 is a cooked fines herbes preparation, of the mushroom-shallot-parsley type sweated in butter until dry. It must be cooked and cooled before going into the forcemeat, or the moisture will loosen the mixture.
Meat glazeNo. 402 is glace de viande — brown stock reduced until it sets to a firm, syrupy jelly. A tablespoon warmed and brushed over each round gives the shine Ranhofer wants. Commercial demi-glace concentrate is the practical stand-in; reduce it further before brushing so it clings rather than runs.
Financière sauceNo. 464 is a Madeira-fortified brown sauce with truffle essence, built on espagnole. A good demi-glace finished with dry Madeira and a little mushroom-soaking liquid gets you close. Keep it thin enough to coat the garnish, not to pool.
Cocks' combs and kidneysNeither is sold at retail in most countries now. Ranhofer himself gives the workaround for the combs — blanched beef palate trimmed to the same scalloped shape. For the "kidneys" (in period usage the testicles), there is no ordinary substitute; more mushrooms and forcemeat balls carry the dish.
The garnish, assembledEverything goes into the warm financière separately and only to heat through: game forcemeat balls poached first in stock, pitted green olives blanched to take off the brine, turned or quartered mushrooms, artichoke bottoms in six wedges, and whole small truffles. Boiling the sauce with the garnish in it will grey the artichokes and toughen the forcemeat.
TrufflesWhole truffles are the single line item that decides whether this dish is worth attempting today. Preserved black truffle, sliced rather than whole, is the honest compromise, and its soaking liquid belongs in the sauce.
YieldRanhofer gives none. Figure two mignons per person for a plated course, with enough financière to coat the garnish for that number.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially the restaurant's working repertoire set down in thousands of numbered entries. Dishes "à la" someone were a house habit: a regular customer, a visiting singer or a public figure would have a garnish named after them, and the name then stuck in the book whether or not later readers had any idea who was meant — Fearing here is one of the more obscure. The garnish itself is not obscure at all: this is a straightforward financière, the classic nineteenth-century assembly of cocks' combs and kidneys, quenelles, mushrooms, olives, artichoke bottoms and truffles in a Madeira brown sauce, generally traced to the grand French service of the early 1800s and said by tradition to be named for the lavishness a financier could afford. Its survival on an American menu in the 1890s shows how completely Delmonico's had adopted Parisian haute cuisine, offal and all.