No. 2435

Tenderloin of Beef a la Evers

Filet de Boeuf a la Evers

This tenderloin is to be prepared and cooked exactly the same as for a la Bienvenue (No. 1445); when done, pare it nicely, and cut it into quarter of an inch thick slices; lay these in an oblong mold the same shape as the tenderloin but smaller than the one to be decorated. Reduce the gravy, add some aspic jelly (No. 103), (test the consistency of this by putting a small quantity of it in a mold on the ice, and if it should not be firm enough add some gelatine), fill in the mold containing the meat with this, and set it aside on ice to get very cold. Decorate the largest mold with pieces of tongue, pistachio nuts, and white of egg; cover the decoration with a heavy layer of jelly; unmold the one containing the meat, lay it in the center of the decorated one, and fill it in with jelly. Fill the entire center up to the inside of the dish destined for the tenderloin, edge with jelly, and when very firm unmold the tenderloin on to the center of it. Lay on each end half a nicely carved rice vase, these being filled with imitations of small truffles made of mousseline of foies-gras, and then rolled in finely chopped truffles. When cold dip them in partly cold jelly, and arrange chopped jelly all around, also oblong-shaped jelly croutons, and fasten three hatelets decorated in Bellevue (No. 2526) on the top of the meat.

← No. 2434 Tenderloin of Beef a la Bouquetiere The Cold Service No. 2436 Tenderloin of Beef a la Lucullus →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a set-piece from the cold buffet rather than a dinner dish: a cooked tenderloin sliced, reset in aspic inside a decorated mold, and presented on a rice-paste socle. Almost all the work is chilling and timing.

The hinge is the jellyEverything stands or falls on aspic that sets firm but is still clear and only just pourable when you use it. Ranhofer's own test — chill a spoonful in a small mold and add gelatine if it slumps — is still the right method, since stocks vary enormously in natural gelatin. Work with the jelly cool and syrupy, just above its setting point, rather than warm.
Cross-references you must chaseNo. 1445 (à la Bienvenue) supplies the actual cooking of the tenderloin and No. 103 the aspic; No. 2526 is the "Bellevue" entry the recipe points to for decorating the hatelets. Read those entries before starting, or substitute a plainly roasted or braised tenderloin, cooked to your preferred doneness, cooled completely, and its pan juices reduced and clarified.
HateletsHatelets (attelets) are ornamental silver skewers, threaded with truffle, tongue or cockscomb and stuck upright into the finished piece. They are decoration, not food, and were part of the visual grammar of the grand cold buffet. Modern presentations simply omit them.
The rice vaseCarved from a stiff paste of overcooked rice, this is a socle — architectural display work, meant to be looked at rather than eaten. If you want the two halves as a plinth, treat them as scenery; the foie gras "truffles" resting in them are the edible part.
Mousseline of foies-grasA sieved foie gras beaten with a little cream and seasoning, piped or rolled into small spheres and coated in chopped truffle to imitate the real thing. A good pâté de foie gras, softened and worked smooth, gives the same effect; keep the spheres very cold or they will not take the jelly coating.
Slicing and moldingRanhofer specifies quarter-inch slices; cutting them evenly to that thickness helps them pack flat so the jelly can fill around them. Chill the meat thoroughly before slicing, and pack the inner mold so the slices lie flat against one another.
UnmoldingDip the mold in warm (not hot) water for two or three seconds only, then invert. The inner block must be set hard before it goes into the decorated outer mold, or the two jellies will merge and blur the decoration.
Hold it coldThe original assumes an ice chest and a cold larder. Aspic work sits at room temperature for a long time while it is assembled; keep the piece refrigerated between every stage, and do not leave the finished dish out on a buffet for more than about two hours.
YieldA whole trimmed tenderloin in this treatment serves twelve to sixteen as part of a cold table.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was Charles Ranhofer's summing-up of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York (his tenure there was interrupted in the 1870s), and its cold service section is the most French thing in it — an inheritance from Carême's pièces montées, in which food was built up on socles of rice, lard or wax, glazed in aspic, and finished with silver skewers so it would read, so to speak, from across a long buffet table. Names like "à la Evers" attach to dozens of these dishes; such names were commonly given for a patron, a party, or an occasion, though the practice is not documented dish by dish, and in most cases the person behind the name is now unrecoverable. What the recipe really records is a technique: jelly of controlled strength used as both glue and glass, with the meat suspended inside a second, decorated shell so the pattern of tongue, pistachio and egg white floats clear of it. The style survived in hotel garde-manger work well into the twentieth century before the cold buffet gave way to plated service.