No. 1437

Tournedos of Tenderloin of Beef a la Talabasse

Tournedos de Filet de Boeuf a la Talabasse

Cook very rare some plain tournedos (No. 1430); lay them over sippets of bread fried in butter, and place around them slices of marrow, and on top of each tournedos a little horseradish butter (No. 578), mingled with chopped up and parboiled shallot, also some chopped parsley. Set the dish for one moment in the oven, and serve very hot.

← No. 1436 Tournedos of Tenderloin of Beef a la Roquepl Beef No. 1438 Tournedos of Tenderloin of Beef a la Victori →

For the Modern Kitchen

A three-part assembly — beef, marrow, compound butter — that depends entirely on cross-references Ranhofer expected you to have open at the same time. The whole thing takes minutes once the components exist.

What a tournedos isA round steak cut from the centre of the beef tenderloin, a single portion of some 4 to 5 oz; nineteenth-century cuts were often thinner than the 1 1/2 to 2 inches usual today. No. 1430 is Ranhofer's plain tournedos preparation, which this recipe assumes you will turn to for the trimming and cooking.
"Very rare" means very rareA strong sear on both sides and a centre left barely warm, no resting beyond a minute or two. The dish is finished briefly in the oven afterwards, so pull the beef earlier than you would if serving straight from the pan.
SippetsNot croutons in the scattered sense but shaped rounds or triangles of crustless bread, cut just larger than the steak and fried in butter until golden on both sides. They exist to absorb the juices; cut them thin enough to stay crisp for a few minutes and no thinner.
The marrowBeef marrow bones, split or cut into 2-inch lengths by the butcher, soaked in cold salted water overnight to draw out blood, then the marrow pushed out whole and sliced into coins. Poach the slices in barely simmering salted water for a couple of minutes only — at a real boil they melt into the pot.
Horseradish butterNo. 578 is Ranhofer's horseradish butter; the usual form is softened butter worked with grated fresh horseradish and seasoning. Fresh root, not the jarred creamed sort, which is mostly vinegar and will loosen the butter.
Parboiled shallotDropping the chopped shallot into boiling water for a minute strips its raw bite so it does not fight the horseradish. Drain it thoroughly and dry it before working it into the butter, or the butter will split.
The oven moment"One moment" is literal: half a minute or so in a hot oven, just long enough to start the butter running. Ranhofer gives no temperature. Any longer and the rare beef climbs to medium and the marrow melts away.
YieldRanhofer wrote for restaurant service and gives no count. Figure one tournedos per person as a course, two for a main plate, with two or three marrow slices and a generous coin of butter on each.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is organised less as a cookbook than as a working reference: nearly every recipe points elsewhere in the book for its garnish, its butter, its base preparation. This entry is a good specimen of that method — six lines of text that assume you already have tournedos, horseradish butter and fried sippets under control. The tournedos itself was a nineteenth-century Parisian restaurant cut, and the long roster of names attached to it (Rossini, Victoria, Roquep"in, Talabasse) reflects the fashion for labelling small individual garnishes after patrons, performers and places rather than any distinct technique. Poached beef marrow laid over steak was standard luxury garnish of the period, familiar from bordelaise service; pairing it with horseradish here gives the richness something sharp to push against. The name Talabasse does not attach to any well-documented figure, and like many of Ranhofer's garnish names it may simply have been house shorthand at Delmonico's.