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Broiled Tenderloin with Parisian Potatoes
Neatly trim and flatten two tenderloins of one pound each. Mix on a plate a tablespoon oil with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper. Repeatedly turn the filets in seasoning, arrange and broil them over a brisk fire eight minutes on each side, and dress on a hot dish. Arrange the same quantity of Parisian potatoes around the filets, spread a little maitre d'hotel butter over and serve.
A plain steakhouse formula from a period when "broil" meant a bar grill over live coals, not an overhead element. The timing is the part to ignore.
- The hinge: cook to temperature, not to the clockEight minutes a side over a hot fire will take a flattened one-pound filet well past medium. Pull the meat at 125-130F internal for medium-rare and let it rest five minutes; on a hot grill that is closer to four or five minutes a side.
- What "two tenderloins of one pound each" meansThese are center-cut pieces of beef tenderloin, not whole tenderloins, which run about 4-6 lb. The recipe gives no yield; a one-pound piece would stretch to two portions, which would make four in all.
- "Flatten"A light pressing with the flat of a heavy knife or a cutlet bat to even the thickness, not pounding thin as for scaloppine. Uneven filets cook unevenly over coals, which is the whole point of the step.
- A brisk fireCoals raked to a glowing even bed, or a gas grill at high, roughly 450-500F at the grate. Under a modern broiler, use the top rack position with the element fully preheated.
- Parisian potatoesPotato balls cut with a parisienne scoop (a melon baller), parboiled a few minutes, then browned in butter until golden. "The same quantity" probably means matching the weight of the meat, though the recipe does not say so; allow well over 2 lb of raw potatoes to end with 2 lb of balls, since scooping wastes a good deal.
- Maitre d'hotel butterSoftened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper — roughly 4 tablespoons butter to 1 tablespoon parsley and 2 teaspoons juice for this amount. Roll in paper, chill, and lay coins on the hot meat so it melts at the table.
- Seasoning in oilA tablespoon of oil with the salt and pepper is enough to coat both pieces and no more; excess oil dripping into coals means flare-ups. Turn the filets in it just before they go on the fire.
Filippini's book sets out to gather the cooking of several nations, and this entry is the French chophouse standard: filet de boeuf grillé, maître d'hôtel, pommes parisiennes, the sort of thing a hotel grill cook turned out dozens of times a night in the 1900s. The two garnishes are pure nineteenth-century French service — pommes parisiennes are the small round potatoes of that style, and maître d'hôtel butter, which appears in French cookery earlier in the nineteenth century, was the all-purpose finish for grilled meat and fish before pan sauces became routine at home. The recipe's terseness is itself period evidence: a cook reading this was assumed to know how to bank a coal fire, cut potato balls and roll a compound butter, so the author spent his words on quantities and left the technique unsaid.