No. 1456

Tenderloin of Beef a la Richelieu, Modern—Whole

Filet de Boeuf a la Richelieu, Moderne--Entier

Arrange the tenderloin and cook it the same as for a la Bernardi (No. 1444) a few moments before serving, glaze it and lay it on a rice foundation on a dish sufficiently large to garnish one side with stuffed tomatoes (No. 2842), and a bunch of glazed lettuce (No. 2753); the other side with stuffed mushrooms (No. 650), and some braised celery (No. 2721), and at each end a cluster of potatoes trimmed to the size of a small egg, and boiled in salted water for twenty minutes; drain off the water, and crush each potato separately in a cloth, then reshape them and range them on a buttered pan, pour some more butter over, and brown nicely in the oven, then add more butter, simply melted, neither cleared nor clarified. This meat may be ornamented by setting five skewers into it garnishing them with finely cut up vegetables. A Madeira sauce (No. 492) in a sauce-boat to be served separately.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is an assembly instruction rather than a standalone recipe: Ranhofer assumes you have the cross-referenced numbers to hand and that a brigade is doing the work. What it really describes is a whole roast or braised tenderloin set on a base and ringed with four separate garnishes, each cooked in advance and kept warm.

Read it as a plan, not a methodSix of the components live elsewhere in the book (the tenderloin itself, tomatoes, lettuce, mushrooms, celery, Madeira sauce). Cook each to your own standard, then use this page purely for the arrangement and the potatoes, which are the only element given in full.
The tenderloinThe method is not given here; the page defers to No. 1444. A whole trimmed beef tenderloin is 4-5 lb and, if roasted, wants a hot oven, 425F, then rest. Pull at 125-130F internal for rare to medium rare; nineteenth-century fillets were generally taken further than modern taste allows, and modern beef will be dry if you follow that lead.
"Glaze it"Glaze here means glace de viande — stock reduced to a syrup — brushed over the meat for shine just before it goes out. It is not a sugar glaze and not a sauce. A few spoonfuls of heavily reduced beef stock does the job.
The rice foundationA socle: stiff, well-cooked rice pressed into a flat base so the tenderloin sits above the platter and the garnishes lean against it. In grand service these bases were often for looks alone. If you want it eaten, cook the rice in stock and press it warm into a lined tray.
The potatoesPotatoes trimmed to the size of a small egg, boiled 20 minutes in salted water, then crushed one at a time in a cloth, reshaped, buttered and browned in the oven. The crushing is the point — it roughens the surface so the butter takes colour. Brown in a hot oven until well coloured.
"Neither cleared nor clarified"Ranhofer is specific: finish with plain melted whole butter, milk solids and all, not clarified butter. The solids carry flavour and a little colour, which is what he wants on the finished potatoes.
The five skewersThese are hâtelets — ornamental silver skewers threaded with cut vegetables, truffle or crayfish and stood upright in the meat for the buffet table. Purely decorative, and safely omitted.
Yield and serviceA whole tenderloin with this many garnishes serves 10 to 12. Everything must be hot at once, so plan the garnishes to finish while the beef rests, and send the Madeira sauce separately in a boat as directed rather than pouring it over.

A Little History

The Richelieu garnish — stuffed tomatoes, braised lettuce, stuffed mushrooms and potatoes around a large piece of beef — was an established formula of the French repertoire by the time Charles Ranhofer set it down for Delmonico's in The Epicurean (1894), though here he adds braised celery to it. It is generally traced to the household of the Duc de Richelieu, the eighteenth-century marshal of France whose name attaches to several dishes, rather than to the cardinal. The label moderne implies a contrast with an older treatment, but the modernity is relative: the rice socle, the ornamental skewers and the requirement that four separate vegetable garnishes arrive hot on one platter belong squarely to the grand banquet service of the Gilded Age, when a single roast was expected to hold the centre of the table as a piece of construction as much as a piece of meat.