No. 2436

Tenderloin of Beef a la Lucullus

Filet de Boeuf a la Lucullus

In order to arrange this tenderloin it will be necessary to have eight molds in two series of four each, four to be decorated and four in which the tenderloins are molded, these being an inch narrower in diameter than those to be decorated. Prepare and cook the tenderloin as explained in l'Ambassade (No. 1441); when done, cut it into slices and reshape the meat into its original form and fill the four smallest molds with it. Reduce the stock with aspic jelly (No. 103), (if necessary add some isinglass to have it very firm), pour over the meat in the molds and set on ice to get very cold. Decorate the four larger molds (see Fig. 455) intended to receive the tenderloin after they are decorated; cover the decoration with a layer of thick jelly, unmold the smaller ones, put their contents inside the larger ones and fill up with very firm jelly. After the jelly is very firm unmold the whole on a cloth, set at the bottom of the slope on each side of the bridge a strong tin square three and a half inches in width and three inches high, having rounded corners and bent in the center to form a right angle; these squares are intended to keep up the tenderloins on the inclined slope, and are most necessary; place the small molds at the ends, and set around the piece twenty-four small croustades made of short paste (No. 135), and filled with goose livers taken from a terrine of foies-gras; around these throw some chopped jelly, making a very regular border of croutons of the same. Stick two hatelets, one at each end, and in the center put a small figure holding up a cup filled with glazed truffles.

← No. 2435 Tenderloin of Beef a la Evers The Cold Service No. 2437 Tenderloin of Beef a la Noailles →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a cold buffet showpiece rather than a dish in the ordinary sense: a braised tenderloin sliced, reassembled, and set twice in aspic, then mounted on a socle with skewers and pastry cases around it. The cooking is trivial; the engineering is not.

The hinge: two-stage moldingEverything depends on the inner mold unmolding clean and sitting centered inside the larger decorated one. Chill each stage until fully set — several hours, not minutes — and pour the outer jelly cool and barely fluid, or it will melt the decoration and float the core off center.
Molds and sizesYou need four plain molds and four decorated ones an inch greater in diameter, so the finished piece has roughly a half inch of clear jelly all round. Straight-sided charlotte or dariole molds work; anything with an undercut will not release.
Aspic and isinglassThe jelly is the reduced stock set with aspic jelly (No. 103). Isinglass is made from dried fish swim bladders (sturgeon historically, though other fish were used); it is now rare in the kitchen, surviving mainly as a fining agent in brewing, and unflavored gelatin does the same work. A showpiece aspic wants noticeably more gelatin than an eating jelly — it has to hold a vertical wall after unmolding.
Cook it as for No. 1441That cross-reference is Ranhofer's tenderloin à l'Ambassade; consult the numbered recipe for the actual cooking method rather than assuming it. For cold slicing, cook to medium rather than rare — a very rare center weeps into the jelly and clouds it — then press and chill before slicing so the slices hold their shape when reassembled.
Croustades and short pasteNo. 135 is a short pastry. The twenty-four small cases are baked blind and filled cold with foie gras from a terrine; fill them at the last moment or the pastry softens. Any smooth liver parfait or mousse stands in.
Hatelets, socle and bridgeHatelets are ornamental skewers, often silver-topped, and largely decorative. The 'slope' and 'bridge' are not described on this page; they appear to belong to a display base set up elsewhere in the book, and the tin squares Ranhofer calls 'most necessary' are what stop the molds sliding down it. Served flat on a platter the recipe works perfectly well and loses only the architecture.
Chopped jelly and croutonsSet a shallow tray of the same aspic, chop it coarse for the loose border, and cut clean triangles or diamonds from a firmer sheet for the ring of croutons. Both must be worked cold and quickly.
YieldFour molds plus twenty-four croustades will serve about twelve to sixteen as part of a cold buffet. Assemble the day before and keep refrigerated; it will not survive more than an hour or two in a warm room.

A Little History

Lucius Licinius Lucullus was a Roman general remembered less for his campaigns than for his table, and by the nineteenth century his name had become French kitchen shorthand for extravagance — a garnish of truffles and foie gras, usually, as it is here. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of what that restaurant could produce, and its cold service chapter is the most period-specific part of the book: elaborate aspic pieces built on carved socles, wired with silver hatelets, and set out on the buffet to be looked at as much as eaten. The numbered cross-references throughout the book reflect its function as a professional manual rather than a domestic cookbook — the reader is assumed to have a brigade, a supply of clarified stock, and molds in matched sets. Cold showpiece work of this kind faded with the service styles that required it, though the two-stage mold-within-a-mold technique survives in classic charcuterie and in modern aspic terrines.