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Tenderloin of Pork, Lyonnaise
Split three fresh pork tenderloins in two, season with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper. Heat two tablespoons good lard in a sautoire, add pork tenderloins one beside another, cook for five minutes on each side, lift up, place on a plate and keep hot. Cut three medium-sized white onions in halves, finely slice, add to pan with a half teaspoon salt, and gently fry until a nice golden colour, stirring frequently meanwhile. Sprinkle over a tablespoon flour, stir well, pour in two tablespoons vinegar and a gill water. Mix well, lay tenderloins on top of onions, then set in oven for ten minutes. Remove, dress pork on a hot dish, pour entire contents of pan over and serve.
A straightforward braise-in-the-pan: sear, build an onion gravy under the meat, finish in the oven. Most of what needs translating is the vessel, the oven setting the original leaves out, and the doneness.
- Timing is the hingeModern pork tenderloin is much leaner than 1906 pork and five minutes a side plus ten in the oven will overshoot it. Pull the meat at 145F internal and let it rest; the onion gravy can be reduced separately while it does.
- GillHalf a cup. With two tablespoons of vinegar and a tablespoon of flour that gives a thin, sharp gravy — correct for the dish, but reduce it a minute or two if you want it to coat.
- SautoireA straight-sided shallow sauté pan. Any heavy skillet or braiser that holds six half-tenderloins in one layer and can go into the oven will do.
- Oven heatThe original gives none, only 'set in oven'. For the ten-minute finish, a modern oven around 400-425F works.
- "Tenderloin" in this book"Tenderloin" here -- the tenderloin proper, not the loin roast. The recipe says only to split each in two, giving six pieces that cook quickly and evenly.
- LardGood lard is still the right fat here — high smoke point, and it browns onions better than butter. Neutral oil works if lard is not to hand.
- The onionsGolden means genuinely golden, not merely softened; that browning is the whole sauce. Slice thin and give them eight to ten minutes with frequent stirring rather than rushing them.
- VinegarThe recipe specifies only 'vinegar'; cider or white wine vinegar suits the dish. Distilled white vinegar is sharper and may want the extra reduction to soften.
- YieldSix portions, one split half-tenderloin each.
"Lyonnaise" on a menu means onions: the classical repertoire attaches the name to dishes built on sliced onions browned in fat, often finished with a splash of vinegar to cut them. The association with Lyon is usually explained by the region's reputation for onions, though that link is traditional rather than documented. That vinegar is what distinguishes this preparation from a plain onion gravy, and it is the reason the dish reads as brisk rather than heavy. The book is by Alexander Filippini, long a cook at Delmonico's in New York, whose books set out to give American households the whole international bill of fare in short, terse working paragraphs of exactly this kind: no yields, no oven numbers, and the assumption that the reader already knows what a sautoire is.