No. 1464

Tenderloin of Beef a la Printaniere—Whole

Filet de Boeuf a la Printaniere--Entier

Pare a tenderloin, lard it with fat salt pork cut in the shape of lardons (No. 2, Fig. 52); garnish the bottom of a long narrow braziere with fragments of fat pork, minced vegetables, onions and aromatics; moisten the meat with a pint of stock (No. 194a); reduce this liquid slowly to a glaze, then remoisten to three-quarters of its heighth. Boil the liquid for seven to eight minutes and cover the tenderloin with buttered paper; close the braziere, put it back on a slower fire and continue to cook with fire over and under for a couple of hours basting it oftentimes with its stock. The meat ought now to be perfectly well done; drain it off to pare; strain and free the stock from fat, pour into it one glassful of Marsala wine and reduce to a half-glaze. Place the tenderloin on a deep baking pan, pour the stock over and glaze while basting frequently; drain off and strain the stock once more, suppress all of its fat and thicken with a few spoonfuls of brown sauce (No. 414) or tomato sauce (No. 549); keep it in a bain-marie. Fasten a wooden foundation covered with cooked paste on the bottom of a long dish, glaze with a brush. Carve the tenderloin into slices, reshape as before and dress it on this foundation; surround with a fine variegated garnishing divided in groups composed of braised lettuce, small timbales of vegetables, small glazed carrots, flowerets of cauliflower and lozenge-shaped string beans. Glaze the meat and cover the bottom of the dish with a small part of the sauce having the rest served in a sauce-boat.

← No. 1463 Tenderloin of Beef, Indian Style—Whole Beef No. 1465 Tenderloin of Beef with Truffles—Whole →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a coal range and a larder of prepared stocks; the dish translates well to a modern kitchen once you decode the equipment and accept one large change in doneness.

The hinge: donenessA whole tenderloin braised two hours will be grey and dry by any modern measure; Ranhofer says the meat "ought now to be perfectly well done," which reads as thoroughly cooked through. If you want the dish rather than the period texture, treat it as a pot roast of a tougher cut, or roast the tenderloin to 125-130F and build the printanière garnish and sauce around it separately.
BraziereA braising pan with a tight lid, not a modern casserole dish. A long enameled cast-iron roaster or a covered fish kettle will hold a whole tenderloin; the shape matters because the liquid should come three-quarters up the meat.
"Fire over and under"Coals on the lid and beneath the pan, meaning gentle all-round heat. A covered pan in a 300-325F oven does the same thing.
LardingFat salt pork drawn through the meat with a larding needle. Tenderloin has almost no intramuscular fat, so this is functional rather than decorative; barding — wrapping the trimmed fillet in sheets of pork fat or caul and tying it — is easier and nearly as effective.
Stock No. 194a and brown sauce No. 414Both are cross-references to preparations elsewhere in the book: a brown braising stock and Ranhofer's brown (Espagnole) sauce. A well-reduced homemade brown stock stands in for both: the sauce here is simply the strained braising liquid, degreased and thickened.
MeasuresA pint is 16 fl oz. A "glassful" is nowhere defined in the book; about half a cup is a reasonable working reading. "Reduce to a half-glaze" means a demi-glace consistency — syrupy, coating a spoon, not yet sticky.
Buttered paperParchment cut to the pan and buttered, laid directly on the meat under the lid. It keeps the exposed top from drying and stops a skin forming; foil is not the same, as it seals rather than breathes.
The wooden foundation and cooked pasteA socle — a shaped wooden block sheathed in a stiff flour-and-water paste, glazed and used purely as a plinth to raise the carved fillet. It was never eaten. Skip it, or use a bed of the vegetables.
YieldA whole trimmed tenderloin runs 4-5 lb and serves ten to twelve with this quantity of garnish.

A Little History

Printanière means "in the spring style," and in classical French service it denotes not a sauce but a garnish: young vegetables cut to shape and arranged in separate groups around the meat — glazed carrots, cauliflower florets, beans cut in lozenges, braised lettuce, small vegetable timbales. The point was contrast of color and precision of cut, which is why Ranhofer specifies the groupings and the raised socle to display them. The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of his decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it reads as a working reference for a large professional kitchen: recipes cross-refer constantly to numbered stocks, sauces and larding diagrams elsewhere in the book, on the assumption that the fonds are already made and the garnishes already understood. Whole fillet of beef, larded and braised rather than roasted, was a standard grand-service centerpiece of the period; the meat was cooked through, sliced, reassembled into its original shape and glazed, so that it arrived at the table looking untouched and left it already carved.