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Aiguillettes of Beef, Milady
Cut out from a two-pound filet of beef six equal pieces; remove the fat, neatly trim and lightly flatten; season all around with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper; carefully lard the top of each with four very thin strips larding pork; thoroughly heat a tablespoon butter in an earthen pan, place the aiguillettes in the pan, one beside another, and cook briskly for two minutes on each side. Cut three medium, red tomatoes into quarters. Season with half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons pepper, half teaspoon sugar, and arrange them all around the aiguillettes. Finely chop two branches of parsley with half a bean sound garlic and dredge it over the beef and tomatoes. Cover the pan and briskly cook for ten minutes. Remove and serve on the same dish.
A straightforward stovetop braise of filet steaks with tomatoes, written in the compressed shorthand of a professional kitchen. A few of its terms and its timing need translating.
- AiguillettesThe word means thin, tapering strips, from aiguille, a needle. Here it simply describes six portions cut from a whole tenderloin, trimmed and pressed slightly flat, roughly 5 oz each.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so two saltspoons is half a teaspoon. Total seasoning across the dish is about 1½ teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper for six portions, which is reasonable.
- Half a bean of garlicA measure used throughout this book, meaning a piece the size of a bean, cut from a sound (unspoiled) clove. In practice, a very small amount of finely chopped garlic.
- Larding porkFresh pork back fat, cut into thin lardons and drawn through the meat with a larding needle. Salt pork blanched to draw out the salt, or thin strips of unsmoked fatback, will do the same job; a strip of blanched bacon changes the flavour but works.
- Earthen panA glazed earthenware dish that can go from burner to table, which suits the instruction to serve on the same dish. A heavy skillet or a shallow enamelled cast-iron pan with a lid will stand in.
- The timing is the problemTwo minutes a side plus ten minutes covered will take filet well past medium. If you want the steaks pink, sear them, set them aside, cook the tomatoes down covered for the ten minutes, then return the beef for the last minute or two. Filet has no fat to forgive overcooking.
- TomatoesThree medium tomatoes in quarters will soften considerably under the lid and give up their juice rather than holding their shape. The half teaspoon of sugar presumably balances the tomatoes' acidity; taste before adding it.
- YieldSix portions, one aiguillette each, served straight from the pan. A gratin of potatoes or plain buttered rice absorbs the tomato juices well.
The International Cook Book belongs to the era when American hotel and restaurant cooking was still conducted in French, and this recipe shows it: the cut is named in French, the meat is larded in the French manner, and the dish carries a title in the style of the grand hotel menu, where every garnish carried a name. Larding — threading strips of pork fat through lean meat — was routine treatment for lean cuts; filet carries little internal fat, and the pork bastes it as it cooks. The tomato garnish, cooked briefly with garlic and parsley, is the treatment associated with Provençal cooking, which French professional kitchens absorbed and carried abroad.