No. 2434

Tenderloin of Beef a la Bouquetiere

Filet de Boeuf a la Bouquetiere

Prepare and cook a fine tenderloin, the same as described in l'Ambassade (No. 1441), only omitting the larding. Let it get cool, keeping it very straight, and when thoroughly cold trim it to a nice shape, and pour over it a brown chaudfroid sauce (No. 594); when the chaudfroid is firm cover it entirely with half-set jelly. Put the tenderloin on top of a two-tier foundation, made either of rice or hominy, the bottom one being two inches thick, the top one three-quarters of an inch, and shaped symmetrically. Fill each of thirty small paper cases with a different vegetable, or several of each kind--say three of each--such as green peas, string beans, flageolets or kidney beans, Brussels sprouts, beets, cauliflower, artichoke bottoms, mushrooms, truffles and celery, seasoned and mixed with a little mayonnaise (No. 606). Prepare fifteen roses cut from turnips, and fifteen cut from carrots, each one inch in diameter, blanched and cooked separately in white broth (No. 194a). Set a rose on the top of each and alternate the colors when decorating the upper tier with fourteen of these, and the lower one with sixteen; force some chopped jelly through a cornet or a bag between each case around the bottom and the edge, and outside of this place a row of jelly squares. Garnish the top of the tenderloin with five hatelets of vegetables (No. 2526), imitating natural flowers, the center one representing a vase decorated with small flowers.

← No. 2433 Rump of Beef a la Mode The Cold Service No. 2435 Tenderloin of Beef a la Evers →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a cold buffet showpiece from Delmonico's rather than a dinner recipe, and almost all of the work is assembly. The cooking is trivial; the coating and the timing of the coating are what decide whether it succeeds.

The hinge: temperature of the chaudfroidThe tenderloin must be refrigerator-cold and blotted dry, and the brown chaudfroid must be at the point where it just coats the back of a spoon and no warmer. Too warm and it runs off in streaks; too cool and it sets in ridges. Coat on a rack over a tray, chill between coats, and re-warm and strain the sauce that falls through.
Chaudfroid and jellyChaudfroid (No. 594) is a brown sauce set with aspic; "half-set jelly" is clarified aspic cooled until it is syrupy and just beginning to thicken. Modern gelatine is far more consistent in strength than the calf's-foot and veal-knuckle stocks Ranhofer worked from, so test a spoonful on a cold plate before committing to the whole piece.
Roasting the filletCooking the fillet -- the meat is cooked as in No. 1441, with the larding left off; the recipe gives no reason, though larding fat would show through a clear glaze. Cook it rare (about 125-130F at the centre by a modern thermometer) and cool it pressed straight, as the recipe directs, so the finished piece is an even shape that trims cleanly.
The foundationThe two-tier base is a socle: a decorative stand of stiff boiled rice or hominy, moulded, chilled and cut to shape. It was meant to be looked at, not eaten. A plain chilled platter or a socle of firm aspic set in a shallow tray does the same job with less waste.
Paper casesThese are the small fluted paper cups now sold as petits-fours or bonbon cases. Thirty is the recipe's own count; they ring the two tiers, and it is the assortment of vegetables they hold that gives the dish its 'bouquetiere' name.
Vegetables and flageoletsFlageolets are small pale green shell beans, still sold dried and tinned; 'kidney beans' here is ambiguous and probably means the fresh shelled bean rather than the dark red dried sort. Everything goes in cooked, cooled and bound with only enough mayonnaise to gloss it, or the cases go limp.
Turnip and carrot rosesCut the roses before blanching, when the vegetable is firm, and cook them separately in white broth (No. 194a) so the carrot does not stain the turnip. Chill them in their own liquid to keep them from drying and curling at the petal edges.
HateletsHatelets (No. 2526) are ornamental silver skewers threaded with cut vegetables and truffle to imitate flowers. They are purely decorative and are removed before carving. Long bamboo skewers stand in adequately.
Holding and servingThe recipe gives no yield, but a whole trimmed tenderloin dressed this way is a buffet piece for a sizeable party. Aspic-coated cold meat softens and weeps at room temperature and should not stand out for hours; keep it refrigerated until the last possible moment and clear it after service.

A Little History

Bouquetiere means a flower girl, and in nineteenth-century kitchen French it signalled a garnish of many small vegetables arranged in distinct groups, like a posy. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York across two separate spells, put this cold version in The Epicurean (1894) among the pieces of the cold service -- the buffet display that anchored a ball supper or a wedding breakfast. Such dishes belong to the grande cuisine tradition of the piece montee: a socle of rice or hominy, a glazed centrepiece, chopped aspic piped around the base, skewers of carved vegetable rising from the top. Much of it was scenery; the socle in particular was almost never eaten. The cross-references throughout -- to No. 1441 for the roast, No. 594 for the chaudfroid, No. 606 for the mayonnaise -- are typical of the book, which assumes a brigade with the stocks and sauces already standing and a chef who needs only the plan of assembly.