No. 1445

Tenderloin of Beef a la Bienvenue—Whole

Filet de Boeuf a la Bienvenue--Entier

Tenderloins intended for braising purposes should be chosen fat, for the lengthy cooking they have to undergo diminishes their size considerably. Raise the tenderloin, remove all the fat, and separate the skin from the meat; have ready large lardings of pork (No. 1, Fig. 52), season them with thyme, chopped and finely pounded bay leaf, salt, pepper and allspice. Lard the inside of the tenderloin with these, cover with thin bardes of fat pork and tie it well. Garnish the bottom of a braziere with slices of pork, moistening with a mirepoix stock (No. 419), put in the meat, warm it, then push the pan into the oven to simmer for three or four hours according to the size of the tenderloin. Strain the gravy through a fine sieve, skim off the fat, reduce it, then drain the tenderloin, glaze and set it on a dish or on a rice foundation. Skim and reduce the stock from the meat with an espagnole and marsala sauce (No. 492), strain it through a sieve, garnish around the tenderloin with pieces of unsmoked red beef tongue cut heart-shaped, also some minced truffles, and quenelles a la Villeroi, add some fine butter to the sauce, and serve in a separate sauce-boat.

← No. 1444 Tenderloin of Beef a la Bernardi—Whole Beef No. 1446 Tenderloin of Beef a la Cauchoise—Whole →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a professional brigade, a stocked sauce station, and a whole trimmed tenderloin. The hinge is the larding: without interior fat and the barding sheet, a lean modern tenderloin will be dry long before three hours are up.

Braziere and oven heatA braziere is a heavy lidded braising pan, an ancestor of the Dutch oven. Ranhofer gives no temperature; "simmer" means only that the liquid should barely tremble, so keep the oven low -- anything hotter will squeeze the meat.
Bardes and lardonsBardes are thin sheets of fatback tied over the outside; the "large lardings" are thick strips of pork fat threaded through the interior with a larding needle. Fatback and caul fat come from a butcher, not a supermarket case, and unsalted sliced fatback is the closest substitute.
The timing problemThree to four hours of braising suits a well-fatted tenderloin of the kind Ranhofer specifies at the head of the recipe. A modern trimmed tenderloin is the leanest muscle on the animal and turns dry and fibrous well before that; today the cut is usually roasted to about 130F internal and rested. If you want the braise, expect meat with the texture of pot roast rather than tenderloin.
Mirepoix stock (No. 419)Not raw diced vegetables but a cooked, wine-moistened aromatic base with ham or bacon trimmings, used as braising liquid. A rich brown veal stock with carrot, onion, celery, a bay leaf and a glass of Madeira or white wine stands in for it.
Espagnole and marsala sauce (No. 492)Espagnole is the flour-thickened brown mother sauce; the marsala version finishes it with fortified wine. A reduced brown veal stock lightly bound and flavoured with marsala serves the same purpose and is quicker.
Unsmoked red beef tongueBrine-cured tongue, pink from the cure and not smoked, boiled and pressed. Sold as pickled or corned tongue where it is sold at all; ordinary boiled fresh tongue works but will not give the red heart shapes Ranhofer wants for contrast.
Quenelles a la VilleroiPoached forcemeat dumplings, chilled, coated in thick reduced Villeroi sauce, breadcrumbed and fried. Two separate preparations before they reach the platter, and the reason this garnish is a kitchen-brigade dish.
Rice foundationA moulded, pressed base of cooked rice used as a plinth to raise the meat on the platter. Purely architectural, and safely omitted.
YieldA whole tenderloin runs 4 to 6 lb untrimmed and rather less once the fat and skin are removed as directed; with the garnishes counted it will serve eight or so. Strain and reduce the braising liquid hard; there will be more of it than the sauce needs.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of what he cooked over three decades at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the house habit of naming dishes for occasions and patrons — a la Bienvenue, "of welcome," one of a long alphabetical run of whole-tenderloin treatments in the beef section, each distinguished only by its garnish and sauce. That such a book needed dozens of them says a great deal about the period: the whole filet, larded, braised, glazed and ringed with tongue, truffles and fried quenelles, was the centrepiece of the American banquet menu. Larding lean cuts with seasoned pork fat is far older than Delmonico's and was standard practice as long as beef was worked animal rather than feedlot animal; the technique faded through the twentieth century as marbled meat made it unnecessary and the larding needle left the domestic drawer.