Tenderloin of Beef a la Melinet—Whole

This is a garnish recipe more than a beef recipe: the tenderloin is cooked elsewhere in the book (No. 1443, larded and braised or roasted), and the work here is in the tongue croustades that ring the platter. Read the whole thing as an assembly job that needs to be staged over two days.

• The hinge: chill the macedoine hardThe buttered, béchamel-bound vegetable dice must be cold and firm enough to hold a mound before the quenelle forcemeat goes over it. If it is even slightly soft the coating slumps in the oven and the tongue disc drowns. Make it a day ahead and refrigerate.
• "Unsmoked red beef tongue"This means brine-cured (corned) tongue, cooked and pressed — red from the cure, not from smoke. Cooked deli-style pickled tongue works; smoked tongue will overwhelm the béchamel. Slice at three-sixteenths of an inch, about 5 mm, thick enough not to curl.
• Slow ovenA gentle oven, on the order of 300F. Ranhofer gives no time: the pieces only need to set the forcemeat and take colour from the parmesan, and he says to remove them 'as soon as they are a fine color'. A hotter oven browns the cheese before the quenelle mixture is cooked through.
• MacédoineMacedoine -- An even small dice of mixed vegetables; carrot, turnip, green beans and peas are the usual components, each cooked separately to just-tender, then bound. Cut everything the same size; the point of the garnish is that it reads as a mosaic when the forcemeat is cut.
• Quenelle forcemeatNo. 89 is not reproduced here; a chicken quenelle forcemeat of this period is generally raw chicken breast pounded with panada and butter, sieved, and bound with egg. A food processor does the pounding in a minute, but keep everything cold and pass it through a sieve afterwards or it will be grainy.
• GlazeTo 'glaze' here means brushing with reduced meat stock (glace de viande) for gloss, not sugar. The mushrooms get the same treatment; caps are usually trimmed or turned and stewed in butter and lemon before being brushed.
• Marinade sauceNo. 496 is not reproduced here; a marinade sauce of this type is sharp, built on vinegar and aromatics, and Ranhofer directs that it be served separately. The chopped truffle is added to it at the end.
• Doneness of the beefA whole trimmed tenderloin of 4–5 lb serves eight to ten and should come out at 125–130°F at the centre for rare to medium rare. Nineteenth-century service ran further along, but the cut has no fat to forgive it.
• Quantity of garnishThe original gives no count. Allow two tongue pieces per person and cut the tongue slices about 2 inches across, as directed, so they sit in a single row on each side of the fillet.