No. 1447

Tenderloin of Beef a la Chanzy—Whole

Filet de Boeuf a la Chanzy--Entier

Pare and lard a fine tenderloin of beef; lay it in a deep baking pan lined with sliced onions, carrots and fat bacon and baste over with butter; salt and cover with buttered paper. Roast it for one hour in a moderate oven basting frequently and adding a gill of hot broth from time to time; lastly, drain off the tenderloin, pare it neatly and dress on a long dish, surround with a handsome garnishing composed of two pretty groups of turned and glazed carrots, two clusters of fine green peas cooked English style (No. 2742), alternated with a few very white mushroom heads, etc., at the same time serve a boatful of good thick gravy (No. 405).

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a professional larder and a coal range; the substance of the dish is a plainly roasted whole tenderloin with a classic garnish. The one thing to change is the timing.

The hour is the problemA whole trimmed tenderloin roasted an hour at moderate heat comes out grey through. Cook to an internal temperature instead — pull at about 125F for rare, 130-135F for medium rare — which on a 4-5 lb whole fillet at 350F usually means 35-50 minutes. Rest 15 minutes before carving.
Moderate ovenConventionally read as about 350F; the book gives no figures. If you want more surface colour, sear the fillet hard in a pan first rather than raising the oven, since the tenderloin has no fat cap to protect it.
A gillHalf a cup. It goes into the pan, not over the meat, to keep the onion, carrot and bacon from scorching and to build the pan juices.
LardingThreading strips of pork back fat through the meat with a larding needle. Few home cooks own one; barding — tying a thin sheet of fat or a few rashers of unsmoked bacon over the top — does the same job of keeping a lean muscle from drying.
Buttered paperParchment brushed with butter, laid loosely over the meat. It shields the surface without steaming it the way foil does. Take it off for the last ten minutes if you want colour.
Turned carrots and peas English styleTurning is cutting carrots into small seven-sided barrel shapes, then glazing them in butter, sugar and a little stock until shiny. Peas "English style" simply means boiled in well-salted water and drained, then buttered — no bacon, no braise.
The gravyRanhofer's No. 405 is one of his thick brown sauces of the espagnole family, though this page only calls it 'good thick gravy'. A workable substitute is the strained pan vegetables and juices deglazed with brown stock and reduced, mounted with butter or lightly thickened.
YieldA whole tenderloin dressed on a long dish serves eight to ten, and in service of this kind it would have been one course among many.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its beef chapter is essentially the French grande cuisine repertoire transplanted to Delmonico's dining rooms — Ranhofer's first stint was at the Fourteenth Street house, though by the time the book appeared the restaurant had long since moved uptown. Garnish names like à la Chanzy were the shorthand of that repertoire: a fixed set of accompaniments attached to a proper name, so a kitchen brigade could read one word and plate the same thing every time. The name is generally traced to Alfred Chanzy (Antoine Eugène Alfred Chanzy), the French general who commanded the Army of the Loire in the Franco-Prussian War and was later ambassador to Russia — one of a great many soldiers, singers and statesmen commemorated in nineteenth-century menu French. What distinguishes the dish is less the name than the method: the fillet is roasted on a bed of onion, carrot and bacon, a technique that turns the roasting pan into its own stock pot and gives the sauce its base while the meat cooks.