No. 1999

Pullet a la Montpensier—Minion Fillets

Filets Mignons de Poularde a la Montpensier

Streak twelve minion fillet with truffles, shape them into rings two inches in diameter and poach them with butter in a small sautoir. Cut twelve quarter inch thick slices from the middle part of freshly cooked red beef tongue and from each of these slices cut out a round piece the same size as the minion fillet rings; lay these tongue rounds on thin crusts of bread fried in butter and covered with a layer of consistent soubise (No. 723), then mask the tongue rounds with a layer of reduced thick Madeira sauce (No. 492), and on top set the minion fillet rings, one on each, filling in their hollow spaces with a large stuffed Spanish olive standing upright and covered with more of the same Madeira sauce. Dress the hot fillets in a circle and in the center place a garnishing of green asparagus tops (No. 2693).

← No. 1998 Pullets a la Montmorency—Breasts Capon & Pullet No. 2000 Pullets' Breasts a la Varsovian →

For the Modern Kitchen

An assembly dish from Delmonico's kitchen: every element is cooked separately, then stacked. Read it as four short preparations plus a plating diagram, and have the sauce, the soubise and the asparagus finished before the fillets go in the pan.

What a minion fillet isThe filet mignon of a fowl is the small inner tenderloin strip lying against the breastbone, one per side, so twelve means six birds' worth. Butchers sell chicken tenders, which are exactly this cut; pull the white tendon out before shaping.
"Streak with truffles"Cut truffle into matchsticks or thin crescents and insert them into slits pricked in the surface of the meat with the point of a small knife, so the black shows through the pale flesh. A tin of whole preserved truffle will do the work of a fresh one here, since the effect is visual.
Shaping the ringsFlatten each tender lightly between plastic, then curl it head to tail into a two-inch ring and fix it with a toothpick or a loop of kitchen twine. Chilling the shaped rings for half an hour before cooking helps them hold the circle.
Poaching with butterA sautoir is a straight-sided shallow pan. "Poach with butter" means gentle butter-basting over low heat, not frying: four to six minutes, turning once, to a safe 165F internal. Hard heat will spring the rings open and toughen a cut this lean.
Red beef tongueThis means brined, cooked, peeled beef tongue, still faintly pink from the cure. Whole tongue needs three to four hours' simmering and cooling before it slices cleanly; sliced cured tongue from a good deli counter is the practical substitute.
Soubise and Madeira sauceClassical soubise is an onion purée bound with rice or thick bechamel; "consistent" means stiff enough to stay put on the crouton. The Madeira sauce should be reduced to a glaze that coats a spoon, or it will run off the tongue and soak the bread.
The croutonsCut the bread rounds slightly wider than the tongue and fry them until fully crisp and dry. Any softness at the center collapses under three wet layers.
Yield and serviceTwelve pieces serve six as a course, or twelve on a large plated dinner. Everything must go out hot, so build the stacks on a warmed platter while the asparagus tips drain, and sauce them at the last moment.

A Little History

Filets mignons de poularde belongs to the classical French repertoire as Charles Ranhofer practiced it at Delmonico's in New York, where The Epicurean (1894) recorded roughly three decades of the restaurant's cooking, covering his years there from 1862 to 1894. A poularde is a fattened young hen, prized for the plumpness of the breast, and the two small inner fillets were treated as a luxury by-product to be dressed with far more care than their size suggests. The name a la Montpensier is one of the hundreds of garnish labels that structured a nineteenth-century kitchen: in the classical listings it is generally associated with asparagus tips and truffle, and the tongue, olive and Madeira here are Ranhofer's own elaboration. The construction itself "a crouton, a spread, a sauce, a ring of meat, a garnish standing upright" is a fair portrait of the period's ambitions, when a dish was expected to hold its architecture from the pass to the table.