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Chateaubriand with Olives
Trim a little of the fat from a two-pound piece tenderloin of beef, place in a coarse towel and neatly flatten with a cleaver to the thickness of one and one half inches. Mix on a plate a tablespoon oil, teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, repeatedly turn the filet in the seasoning, arrange on broiler and broil on a slow fire for eight minutes on each side. Remove, sprinkle a little salt allaround, place on a tin, pour a tablespoon melted butter and squeeze the juice of half a lemon over, set in oven for eight minutes, remove, dress on a hot dish, pour an olive sauce over, sprinkle a little chopped parsley on top and serve.
A plain grill-and-finish treatment of a center-cut tenderloin, written when steaks were cooked considerably further than most cooks want today. The one number worth ignoring is the total cooking time.
- Cook to temperature, not to the clockEight minutes a side on the broiler plus eight in the oven will take a 1½-inch tenderloin well past medium. Pull it at 125-130F internal for medium rare, which on a hot broiler is closer to four or five minutes a side, then two or three in the oven.
- "A slow fire"A moderate rather than a blazing fire; in a coal or wood broiler this would generally have meant glowing embers rather than flame, giving steady radiant heat. Under a modern gas or electric broiler, set the rack about 5 inches from the element rather than pressed up against it.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. A hot oven of around 400-425F suits the short finishing stage; the point is to set the surface and warm the butter, not to keep cooking the interior.
- Olive sauceAssumed knowledge in this book: a brown sauce or demi-glace with pitted olives added at the end. Blanch green olives in boiling water for a minute or two before adding, or the sauce turns aggressively salty as it reduces.
- Flattening in a towelThe cloth keeps the cleaver from tearing the surface and stops juices spattering. Use the flat of a heavy knife or a mallet and even out the piece rather than genuinely pounding it thin — the aim is uniform thickness so it cooks evenly.
- The cutChateaubriand is the thick center section of the tenderloin. Two pounds is a generous piece; ask for it trimmed of silverskin, which the recipe does not mention and which will not soften with cooking.
- Rest before carvingNo resting is specified. Give it five to eight minutes on the hot dish before slicing across the grain, or the juices run out onto the platter.
- YieldServes two to four, depending on whether it is presented as the classic dish for two or carved into a course.
The cut and the dish are generally traced to François-René de Chateaubriand, the French writer and diplomat of the Napoleonic and Restoration years, and traditionally credited to his cook Montmireil, who is said to have devised the thick center-cut tenderloin grilled and served with a sauce. By the time this book was compiled, chateaubriand had settled into the international hotel and restaurant repertoire as a dish for two, served with any of several classical sauces or butters — here dressed up with olives. The double cooking, broiler then oven, may be read as a working kitchen convenience: the range fire marks and colors the meat, the oven finishes it away from the direct heat while the cook attends to the sauce.