No. 1415

Noisettes of Tenderloin of Beef a la Maire

Noisettes de Filet de Boeuf a la Maire

The noisettes of tenderloin of beef are to be prepared and cooked as for plain noisettes (No. 1410); glaze them, and lay them over a garnishing of potatoes maitre d'hotel (No. 2795). Serve separately a half-glaze (No. 400) with tomato sauce (No. 549) with chopped fine herbs added, and stir in a piece of fresh butter just when ready to serve.

← No. 1414 Noisettes of Tenderloin of Beef a la Magny Beef No. 1416 Noisettes of Tenderloin of Beef a la Nicoise →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a recipe written for a professional brigade: nearly every component sits behind a cross-reference to another page of Ranhofer's book. Reconstructed, it is small rounds of beef tenderloin, glazed, set on cubed potatoes tossed in parsley butter, with a buttered tomato-flavoured demi-glace passed at table.

What a noisette isA noisette is a small round of trimmed tenderloin, typically about 2 in. across and 1 to 1.25 in. thick, cut from the fillet. Ranhofer gives no dimensions here; figure two per person.
The cooking method behind No. 1410No. 1410, the plain noisettes, is not reproduced here; on the usual method they are sauteed quickly in butter over high heat and then rested, and at this size a few minutes a side gives rare to medium-rare. They are small cuts and easily overcooked.
"Glaze them"This means brushing the cooked noisettes with meat glaze — stock reduced to a syrup — for gloss and colour, not putting them under a broiler. A tablespoon of reduced beef stock or a good commercial glace de viande, warmed, does the same job.
Half-glazeRanhofer's No. 400 is demi-glace: espagnole sauce and brown stock reduced together by half. A modern kitchen can substitute a strongly reduced brown veal or beef stock, thickened only by reduction.
Potatoes maitre d'hotelNot mashed. Boiled potatoes, peeled and cut into even pieces or slices, finished with butter, chopped parsley and lemon juice. They want to be hot and dry when the beef goes over them.
Fine herbsFines herbes in this period means chopped parsley, chervil, tarragon and chives. Add them off the heat; tarragon and chervil lose everything if they simmer.
The butter finishStirring cold butter into the sauce off the heat, at the last moment, is monter au beurre. Once it is in, the sauce must not boil or it will break, so mount it in the serving vessel rather than on the stove.
Sauce served separatelyThe original passes the sauce apart, in a sauceboat. No reason is given, though it keeps the glaze on the meat and the potatoes dry.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows how such a book actually worked: a single master preparation for noisettes, followed by numbered variations distinguished only by garnish and sauce. Nos. 1414, 1415 and 1416 — Magny, Maire, Nicoise — run alphabetically down the page, and the first two names are generally taken to refer to Paris restaurants of the period, Magny's and Maire's, though the attribution of garnishes to such houses was loose and largely honorific by Ranhofer's day. What the entry really documents is the French system transplanted whole to Manhattan: a cook who knew Nos. 1410, 2795, 400 and 549 could produce the dish without further instruction, and one who did not had no business at the range.