No. 1424
Tenderloin Steak with Anchovy Butter
Filet de Boeuf au Beurre d'Anchois
Trim and cook the tenderloin as for the plain (No. 1423); lay it on a very hot dish, and cover the surface with some anchovy butter (No. 569).
Ranhofer writes in shorthand, assuming you have No. 1423 (the plain broiled tenderloin) and No. 569 (anchovy butter) at hand. Here is what those two references contain and what the dish needs from a modern cook.
- The cut and its sizeThe heading of No. 1423 specifies a steak of ten ounces, trimmed of silverskin and fat. Ranhofer gives no thickness; a ten-ounce tenderloin steak will run somewhere over an inch. That is one generous portion by Delmonico's standards and would serve one or be split between two lighter appetites today.
- "Cook as for the plain" means broil over live coals"Cook as for the plain" means broil -- The heading of No. 1423 identifies it as a plain broiled steak, so the cooking is grilling over a hot fire rather than pan-work or roasting. A ripping-hot cast-iron pan or a charcoal grill reproduces it; a domestic overhead broiler is the weakest substitute because it browns without searing.
- DonenessRanhofer gives no doneness here. Tenderloin gives nothing back if pushed far; by modern practice, pull it at 125-130F internal for rare, 130-135F for medium-rare.
- Anchovy butter (No. 569)The standard method is to pound anchovy fillets, well rinsed of their salt, to a paste and work them into softened butter, sieving the mixture smooth; a food processor does the same work. Proportions vary, but a few parts butter to one of anchovy is usual. Keep it cold and firm until the moment of use.
- Do not melt the butterThe point is that a firm slice or a spooned layer of the compound butter melts on contact with the meat and mixes with the escaping juices. Melting it in a pan first splits it and loses the emulsion, and the anchovy scorches easily.
- The very hot dish is not decorationAn unheated plate stalls the butter and gives you a greasy film. Warm the serving dish thoroughly, carve or plate at once, and get it to the table immediately.
- SaltSeason the steak lightly before broiling. The anchovy butter is salty enough that the usual hand at the salt cellar will overshoot.
The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of what he cooked in his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows how such a book was organised: a single foundation recipe for broiled tenderloin followed by dozens of variations distinguished only by their sauce or garnish. Anchovy butter belongs to the French repertoire of compound butters, beurres composés, which appear to have taken settled form over the course of the nineteenth century as a quick way to finish grilled meat and fish without a made sauce. English cooks had long used anchovy essence and "fish sauce" to deepen gravies for red meat; the anchovy reads as savoury rather than fishy against the mild tenderloin, which is precisely why the cut, prized for texture and short on flavour, was so often sent out under a strongly seasoned butter.