Home › The World's Kitchen › Filet of Beef, Griscom
Filet of Beef, Griscom
Neatly trim a three-pound piece filet of beef. Cut two ounces lean ham in small strips, then with a larding needle insert these strips on the surface of the filet. Lay a mirepoix in a roasting pan; lay the filet on top, season all around with half teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, lightly baste the filet with a little melted butter; pour half a gill water into pan, then set in oven thirty-five minutes, turning and basting once in a while. Remove and keep hot in the pan.
Carefully wipe three good-sized, but not too ripe, sound red tomatoes, cut them in even halves, crosswise. With a small keen knife cut away a very little of the soft part of each half from the top "cut part" without disturbing the skin. Evenly season them with half teaspoon salt, three saltspoons sugar and two saltspoons white pepper. Place in a mortar one ounce raw beef marrow, one sound good-sized chopped shallot, one branch very fresh parsley, one branch fresh chervil and two branches tarragon. Season with saltspoon salt and half saltspoon cayenne pepper, thoroughly pound to a nice smooth paste, then press the paste through a wire sieve into a bowl, add a tablespoon fresh bread crumbs, strain in the juice of quarter of a sound lemon, stir till well mixed, then spread the force evenly over the six half tomatoes--cut side. Arrange the tomatoes on a lightly buttered tin, set in the oven fifteen minutes, remove and use as directed. Peel and thoroughly wash twelve medium, sound fresh mushrooms and fry to a nice golden colour in a tablespoon melted butter, season with three saltspoons salt. Have six timbales of spinach ready. Place filet on a large hot dish and alternately arrange the garnishing around the filet; that is to say, a timbale of spinach, a fresh mushroom, a tomato, another mushroom, timbale, and so on until finished. Skim fat from surface of the gravy; pour in half gill good sherry, one good gill demi-glace and tablespoon truffle liquor; lightly mix, then briskly boil eight minutes. Strain through a Chinese strainer over the filet, and serve very hot.
A Delmonico-style set piece: a larded beef tenderloin roasted over aromatics, ringed with stuffed tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach timbales, with a sherried pan sauce. The instructions assume a professional kitchen with stock and garnishes already on hand.
- The hinge is the roasting timeThirty-five minutes for a three-pound trimmed filet implies a hot oven, on the order of 425-450F, though the book never gives a temperature; at that heat it yields rare to medium-rare meat. Cook to an internal temperature of 125-130F at the thick end and rest it 10 minutes; the tenderloin has no fat or connective tissue to forgive overcooking.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is 1/2 cup, so "half a gill" is 1/4 cup — that small amount of water in the pan is there to keep the mirepoix from scorching, not to braise. A saltspoon is about 1/4 teaspoon.
- MirepoixHere it means the classic bed of roughly diced carrot, onion and celery, often with a bay leaf and thyme, laid down as a rack and flavour base. It is discarded (or strained out with the sauce), not served.
- Larding with hamA larding needle threads strips of fat or ham through the surface of lean meat. If you have no needle, cut shallow slits with a paring knife and push the ham strips in, or omit it and bard the filet with thin sheets of fat instead — the modern equivalent of the same intent.
- Beef marrowRaw marrow scooped from split marrow bones binds and enriches the tomato stuffing; ask a butcher for canoe-cut bones. Butter will stand in, but the paste will be looser and less savoury.
- Demi-glace and truffle liquorDemi-glace is reduced brown sauce; a good reduced veal or beef stock, thickened only by reduction, does the job. "Truffle liquor" is the canning liquid from preserved truffles — if you have none, leave it out rather than substituting truffle oil, which will dominate the sauce.
- Spinach timbalesThe book assumes you have these ready from another entry: creamed or puréed spinach bound with egg and baked in small buttered moulds in a water bath until set, then turned out. Six small ramekins, about 20 minutes at 325F in a bain-marie, gives the right result.
- Chinese strainerA chinois — the fine conical sieve. A fine-mesh strainer is fine; press the solids to extract everything, then pour the sauce over the filet at the last moment so the garnishes stay distinct.
- YieldSix half tomatoes, six timbales and twelve mushrooms mark this as a dish for six, served as a single platter to be carved at table.
Alexander Filippini, whose long career at Delmonico's in New York shaped this 1906 book, followed the restaurant habit of attaching a patron's or notable's surname to a garnished set piece — a title like "Filet of Beef, Griscom" functioned less as a dish name than as a shorthand for one particular arrangement of garnishes, and the book itself never says whom the name honours. What the recipe really documents is the grammar of grande cuisine service: the roast is only the centre, and the plate is built from separately cooked components — a stuffed vegetable, a sautéed vegetable, a moulded purée — repeated around the platter in strict alternation, with the sauce finished from the roasting pan at the last minute. That ring of garnishes, each requiring its own pan and its own timing, is the reason such dishes belonged to kitchens with a brigade rather than to home cooks, and why Filippini can write "have six timbales of spinach ready" without further comment.