No. 1433

Tournedos of Tenderloin of Beef a la Hutching

Tournedos de Filet de Boeuf a la Hutching

To be prepared and cooked exactly the same as plain tournedos (No. 1430); after being glazed, set them on a dish over croquettes of horseradish and cream made the same size as the tournedos.

For Croquettes of Horseradish.—Reduce some good cream to half its quantity, add two ounces of butter, season it with salt and nutmeg, and stir in it sufficient grated fresh horseradish to form a consistent paste; let cool, then shape them into inch and a half balls, flatten them down to a third of their diameter, dip in eggs, roll in bread-crumbs and fry in clarified butter. Place on each tournedo a slice of apple fried in butter, and in the center of this lay a round slice of cooked ham an inch in diameter by a quarter of an inch thick, also fried in butter; drain off the butter; and detach the glaze from the pan with a clear gravy (No. 404), half-glaze (No. 400) and some Madeira; strain the sauce through a fine sieve, and pour it on to the dish around the tournedos.

← No. 1432 Tournedos of Tenderloin of Beef a la Flavign Beef No. 1434 Tournedos of Tenderloin of Beef a la Laguipi →

For the Modern Kitchen

A composed steak plate in Ranhofer's cross-referenced style: the tournedos themselves are made elsewhere in the book, and what is given here is the garnish. The horseradish croquettes are the difficult part and worth reading twice before you start.

The cross-referencesNo. 1430 is plain tournedos, prepared and cooked elsewhere in the book. No. 404 is a clear brown gravy and No. 400 a half-glaze; a good demi-glace or a reduced brown veal stock stands in for both.
Glazing"After being glazed" means brushed with meat glaze — stock reduced to a syrup — not sugar. A tablespoon of very reduced brown stock warmed and painted on gives the shine.
The croquette paste is the hingeThere is no flour, no panade and no egg yolk in the mixture; it holds together only because the cream is reduced far enough and then chilled hard. Reduce heavy cream by half over low heat, beat in the butter, work in the grated horseradish until stiff, and refrigerate at least two hours before shaping. If the paste sags when you press it flat, it needs more reduction or more horseradish.
HorseradishFresh root, peeled and grated fine on a rasp. Bottled horseradish is packed in vinegar and brine and will thin the paste and sour the cream; if it is all you have, drain it hard first and expect a sharper, wetter result.
Breading and fryingEgg and crumb the chilled discs, then chill again before frying, or they will burst. Clarified butter at around 340-350F; they only need to colour, since nothing inside is raw.
Apple and hamA firm cooking apple, peeled, cut into rings and fried in butter until just tender; the recipe does not state a thickness for the apple. The ham round should be cut with a small cutter to the stated inch by a quarter inch, from a cooked, dry-cured ham rather than a wet sandwich ham.
The pan sauceDrain off the butter and detach the glaze from the pan with the clear gravy, half-glaze and Madeira together, then strain. Sercial or Verdelho Madeira is drier and better here than the sweet styles; the sauce goes around the meat, not over it.
Yield and assemblyRanhofer wrote for service, not portions. Count one tournedo, one croquette, one apple ring and one ham round per person, and assemble at the last minute so the croquette stays crisp under the meat.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, where he was chef for more than thirty years, and its beef chapter runs to dozens of tournedos garnishes distinguished only by what sits under and around the steak. Many carry the names of patrons, and "a la Hutching" may well be one of these house dedications rather than a dish with an independent history, though no Hutching has been identified; the book is full of such personal titles, which functioned as a compliment to a regular customer and a shorthand for the kitchen. The garnish itself is Anglo-American in feeling despite the French construction — the accompaniments of a roast beef or a boiled ham on either side of the Atlantic, here disassembled and rebuilt in miniature. The technique of binding a savoury paste with nothing but reduced cream and butter belongs to a period when, it is often said, heavy cream was reduced freely and croquettes were at home on a formal menu.