No. 1421

Paupiettes of Tenderloin of Beef with Cooked Fine Herbs

Paupiettes de Filet de Boeuf aux Fines Herbes Cuites

Cut lengthwise from a pared tenderloin ten slices five inches long by two and a quarter wide and three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness; beat them lightly, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg; cover one side with a layer of cooked fine herbs (No. 385), thickened with a little well reduced half-glaze (No. 400). Roll the paupiettes into cylindrical forms one and three-quarters in diameter; roll them inside a barde of fat pork, maintain them in shape with two turns of string; range the paupiettes in a sautoir lined with bardes of fat pork, wet with mirepoix stock (No. 419), to half their heighth and then reduce the moistening entirely. Remoisten and finish to cook slowly in the oven; when done pare and dress them on a dish; strain and skim the fat from the stock, reduce it with a little white wine and espagnole sauce (No. 414), and pour it over the paupiettes.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a larder of prepared stocks on hand; nearly every cross-reference here is a component you either buy or make in advance. Sort those out and the dish itself is a straightforward slow braise of rolled beef.

The hinge: reduce, then remoistenWetting the pan halfway and reducing the liquid entirely before adding more is not padding. That first reduction glazes the bardes and the paupiettes with concentrated stock and gelatin, and it is where the colour and depth of the finished sauce come from. Take it to a syrupy film on the pan bottom, just short of scorching, before the second moistening.
Cooked fine herbs (No. 385)Ranhofer's fines herbes cuites is a cooked mixture in the duxelles family: chopped mushrooms with onion or shallot and parsley, cooked down in butter until dry. Bound with a spoonful of reduced demi-glace it becomes a stiff paste that is far less likely to squeeze out when the meat is rolled.
Half-glaze and espagnoleHalf-glaze (No. 400) is demi-glace; espagnole (No. 414) is the brown mother sauce it is made from. A good commercial demi-glace or a well-reduced homemade brown veal stock stands in for both. Mirepoix stock (No. 419) is stock cooked with a mirepoix -- carrot, onion and herbs, and in this kitchen usually ham or salt pork and wine as well.
Bardes of fat porkBarding fat is sheet fatback, cut about 1/8 inch thick. Butchers who break down whole pigs will slice it; caul fat wrapped in two layers is the nearest common substitute, and thin unsmoked pancetta or salt pork blanched to remove salt will also serve. Ordinary bacon brings smoke the dish does not want.
Cutting the slicesFive inches by two and a quarter, three-sixteenths thick — that is a scaloppine, and tenderloin is awkward to cut that thin. Firm the trimmed fillet in the freezer for 30 to 40 minutes, slice with a long blade, then pound between plastic sheets to even thickness rather than to stretch it.
Oven temperature"Finish to cook slowly in the oven" gives no figure; the book never states temperatures, so read it as a low oven, in the region of 300 to 325F, covered, with the liquid barely trembling. Tenderloin has little connective tissue to break down, so this is about setting the roll and infusing it rather than tenderising; 30 to 40 minutes after the second moistening is a reasonable guide.
Paring and the stringPare means to trim the ends square after cooking so the cylinders sit neatly. Remove the string and the barde before dressing, unless you want the fat left on, and let the paupiettes rest a few minutes before slicing the ends or the filling will slump.
YieldTen paupiettes, each rolled to about 1 3/4 inches across, as the recipe directs. The recipe itself states no number of servings.

A Little History

Paupiette — a thin slice of meat spread with forcemeat and rolled — belongs to the older French repertoire of stuffed and bound cuts, and the same idea travels under many names: alouettes sans tête in Provence, beef olives in English cookery, roulade in German. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the Delmonico's kitchens in New York across two separate spells — roughly 1862 to 1876 and 1879 to 1896 — published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of that kitchen, and the numbered cross-references throughout are its defining feature: no dish stands alone, each is assembled from a catalogue of stocks, sauces and garnishes prepared elsewhere in the house. It is tempting to read the use of prime tenderloin for paupiettes as a sign of the period's abundance of American beef, and to suppose that a French provincial cook would have made the same roll from cheap round, rolling and slow-cooking being a way to rescue a tough cut — though both are inferences rather than documented fact.