Tenderloin of Beef a la Conde—Whole

This is an assembly instruction rather than a standalone recipe: Ranhofer expects you to have Nos. 1443, 885 and 550 open beside it, plus a pastry cook and a garde-manger. Stripped of the show pieces, it is a roasted whole tenderloin, glazed, on a bed of rice, with a tomato sauce served apart.

• The hinge: temperature, not decorationThe tenderloin is roasted whole, glazed, paraded on the table, then carried back out to be sliced and plated. All that handling means it keeps cooking and cooling on its own schedule. Pull it several degrees short of where you want it — around 120F for rare, 125-130F for medium rare — and count the parade as part of the rest.
• "The same as for a la Bayonnaise"No. 1443 is not reproduced here; a whole tenderloin at this date would be trimmed and larded before roasting or braising. A whole beef tenderloin runs 4-6 lb untrimmed; trimmed of chain and silverskin it is nearer 3-4 lb and serves 8-10. Tenderloin is a very lean cut, so barding or larding is not merely ornamental.
• GlazeGlace de viande: brown veal or beef stock reduced to a syrup that sets to a jelly when cold. Warmed and brushed on hot meat it gives the lacquered surface Ranhofer wants. Commercial demi-glace reduced further will do.
• The rice foundationA socle — a shaped platform of stiff, well-cooked rice bound and moulded, sometimes over a wooden or metal core. It is a plinth to raise and steady the roast for display, not a side dish, and in Ranhofer's service it does not go on the plate.
• Skewers of truffles and cocks'-combsThese are hâtelets, ornamental silver skewers stuck upright into the meat purely for the table. Cocks' combs required blanching, peeling and long gentle poaching, and are effectively unobtainable now; blanched truffle slices alone, or nothing at all, is the honest modern choice.
• Croquettes and timbalesNo. 885 is a game croquette — cooked game bound in a thick reduced sauce, chilled, shaped, crumbed and fried. The chicken timbales are small moulded forcemeat custards, baked in a water bath. Both can be made a day ahead; the croquettes should be fried at the last moment. "Intercalating" simply means alternating them around the base.
• Tomato sauce a la CondeNo. 550 is not reproduced here; the recipe directs only that it be served separately in a sauceboat rather than poured over. Keep it thin enough to spoon beside a slice of beef, not to coat it.
• Serving as Ranhofer intendsHe is explicit that the piece is shown whole, then removed from the table, cut into slices, and one slice placed on each plate "with some of the garnishing and sauce" before being handed to the guests. If you are not doing the procession, carve in the kitchen and plate directly.