No. 1409

Minions of Tenderloin of Beef with Chestnuts, Marsala Sauce

Mignons de Filet de Boeuf aux Marrons, Sauce Marsala

Have the minions prepared and cooked the same as for plain (No. 1399). Split open the sides of some chestnuts, plunge them into very hot fat, or roast them in the oven; remove the outside peel, also the inside skin, blanch them in plenty of water, then cook them in broth (No. 194a) with a little butter added, and a stalk of celery. When thoroughly done, drain, and use only those which have remained whole and intact; return these to the saucepan adding a little half-glaze sauce (No. 413), and some Marsala wine. Dress the glazed minions on a bread crouton fried in butter, and garnish them with the chestnuts either around or inside should they be arranged crown-shaped. Pour the sauce over and serve.

← No. 1408 Minions of Tenderloin of Beef with Cepes a l Beef No. 1410 Noisettes of Tenderloin of Beef, Plain →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in cross-references, assuming a brigade with stock, demi-glace and trimmed fillet already on hand. Stripped of that scaffolding, this is seared tenderloin medallions on fried bread with braised chestnuts in a Marsala pan sauce.

What a "minion" isMignon de filet is a medallion cut from the tenderloin, roughly 1 to 1.5 inches thick and 3 to 4 oz. No. 1399 is the plain preparation this recipe sends you back to; the mignons are sautéed and, as the text here says, served glazed. Cook rare to medium-rare — pull them at 125-130F internal and rest; tenderloin has no fat to forgive overcooking.
The cross-referenced saucesNo. 413 half-glaze is demi-glace: brown sauce and stock reduced by half until it coats a spoon. No. 194a is one of Ranhofer's broths; a plain unsalted beef broth stands in. Good commercial demi-glace or a strongly reduced beef stock will do for the sauce; if you use stock alone, reduce it hard and mount with cold butter or the sauce will be thin.
MarsalaUse dry (secco) Marsala, not the sweet cooking Marsala sold in supermarket vinegar aisles. Add it off direct heat, reduce briefly to burn off the raw alcohol, then finish with the demi-glace. About 1/4 cup wine to 3/4 cup sauce for four servings.
Chestnuts, the fussy partScoring, hot fat or oven roasting, peeling and skinning is the whole labour of the dish. Vacuum-packed or jarred cooked chestnuts skip it entirely and are worth using; simmer them in broth with butter and celery for 10-15 minutes to take on flavour. Roasting fresh: 425F for 20-25 minutes, peel while hot.
"Only those which have remained whole"Chestnuts crumble as they cook, and Ranhofer is telling you to sort the survivors for the garnish. The broken ones are not waste — mash them into the sauce or keep them for a purée. Buy about a third more than you need for the plate.
Crown-shaped dressingThe medallions are set in a ring on their croutons with the chestnuts heaped in the centre; the text also allows the chestnuts simply arranged around. Cut the croutons to the diameter of the meat, fry in butter until dry and gold, and drain; a soft crouton collapses under the sauce.
YieldNo quantities are given. Two medallions per person, 12-16 whole chestnuts for four, and roughly a cup of finished sauce.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows how the book works: a spine recipe (No. 1399, plain mignons) followed by a long run of variations, each differing only in garnish and sauce. Number 1410, "Noisettes of Tenderloin of Beef, Plain", is a different cut with its own base recipe, and the format let a kitchen build a different menu every night from a fixed repertoire of stocks and mother sauces. Chestnuts as a garnish for beef and game belong to the French autumn table, where they were cheap and plentiful; pairing them with Marsala reflects the late-nineteenth-century fashion for fortified wines in brown sauces. The dish is a good measure of what a Gilded Age restaurant kitchen could spend on labour: peeling, skinning and braising chestnuts one by one, then discarding every one that cracked.