No. 1423

Tenderloin—Steak of Ten Ounces, Plain, Broiled or Sauted

Filet de Boeuf de dix Onces Grille ou Saute Nature

Select the tenderloin of a good red color and nicely streaked with fat. Pare it carefully, remove all the fibrous parts, cut it into slices, each weighing eleven ounces, and beat lightly to flatten them to an inch and a quarter in thickness. Trim well in order to give them a round-shaped appearance. Each tenderloin after being trimmed should weigh ten ounces; season them with salt, baste over with oil or melted butter, lay them on a gridiron, and broil them on a moderate well-sustained fire, turning them over only once during the time they take to cook, which is ten minutes to have them rare, twelve minutes to have them properly done, and fourteen minutes well cooked. Lay them on a hot dish.

Prepare the tenderloin steaks as for the above, season and saute in clarified butter over a bright fire. Turn them over after they have been on the fire for about six minutes and again after another six minutes, making twelve in all. When the gravy from the meat can be seen on the surface, then remove the steak and lay it on a dish; drain out the fat completely from the pan, detach the glaze with a little clear gravy (No. 404), reduce, strain and pour it over the meat; serve.

← No. 1422 Pilau a la Reglain Beef No. 1424 Tenderloin Steak with Anchovy Butter →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is describing a restaurant portion cut to a fixed weight, and the whole method depends on that geometry: an eleven-ounce slice flattened to an inch and a quarter. Get the thickness right and the timings behave; cut thinner and they will not.

The hinge: thickness, not weightAn inch and a quarter is the working number. The eleven-ounce raw slice trimmed to ten ounces is à la carte portioning; at home cut two 1¼-inch filets from the centre of the tenderloin and disregard the ounces.
"Moderate well-sustained fire"A steady bed of charcoal or hardwood past its flaming stage, hot enough to sear but even and unspent for the full ten to fourteen minutes. On gas or a grill pan this means medium-high, preheated at least five minutes, not a screaming pan.
The times run long by modern habitTen minutes for rare assumes an open gridiron over coals with real heat loss between bars. On a covered gas grill or in a heavy pan the same filet will likely be rare well short of that. Go by a thermometer: about 125F for rare, 130-135F for medium rare; what Ranhofer calls well cooked at fourteen minutes would be considerably higher, 150F or more.
Turning onceKept for the gridiron, where a single turn gives clean bar marks. There is no penalty for turning a pan-sautéed filet more often, and it cooks more evenly if you do.
Clarified butterCalled for in the sauté because whole butter's milk solids burn at this heat. Clarify your own or use ghee; a neutral oil with a knob of butter added late works as well.
"Detach the glaze with a little clear gravy (No. 404)"No. 404 is Ranhofer's cross-reference for clear gravy, used here unthickened. Substitute good unsalted beef stock reduced until it coats a spoon lightly. Pour off the fat first, as the recipe directs.
RestingThe original sends the steak straight to a hot dish. Give a filet this thick five to eight minutes off the heat before serving; carry-over cooking will raise it several degrees, so pull it early.
YieldOne trimmed steak per person. The recipe calls only for 'a little' clear gravy, enough to detach the glaze and pour over the meat.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of his own kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, where he was chef for most of the years between 1862 and 1896, and the fixed ten-ounce portion here reads as a restaurant's accounting rather than a household cook's measure. The French title, filet de boeuf... nature, marks it as the unadorned reference version, from which the numbered variations that follow — anchovy butter and the rest — depart. It stands at the head of a long run of tenderloin entries. By this period Chicago dressed beef moving east by refrigerated rail had made cuts from the short loin more reliably available to city restaurants, and the thick individual filet, broiled over coals or sautéed and finished with a pan glaze, was a fixture of fashionable New York dining.