X.
ENTRÉES.
Fillet of Beef.—This favorite dish with French and Americans may be roasted whole, or cut so as to serve individually. To roast it whole, it must be trimmed perfectly round, and either larded or not as taste may dictate. A fillet weighing four pounds should be roasted three quarters of an hour in a sharp oven. It may then be served à la Châteaubriand by pouring over it half a pint of the sauce of that name, with horseradish sauce, or brown mushroom sauce (brown sauce with mushrooms added).
To serve individually, fillets are prepared in the following way: Cut a fillet into eight slices three quarters of an inch thick; trim the slices into perfect circles, all exactly the same size; flatten them; put them in a hot pan, and sauté for seven or eight minutes in two ounces of butter; dress them round a dish, and pour over them the sauce from which the dish will take its name.
Filets de Bœuf à la Béarnaise.—Serve with half a pint of Béarnaise sauce.
Filets de Bœuf aux Champignons.—Dress as before; leave in the centre of the dish room for a mound of stewed mushrooms; pour over the fillets half a pint of rich brown sauce. Serve these dishes as soon as cooked: the meat is spoiled by waiting.
I have received several letters from readers living where lobster is only to be had in cans, asking if there is no substitute for the coral in making cardinal sauce. Canned lobster frequently contains a great deal of coral, which is as good for coloring and flavoring as the fresh. This can only be known, however, before opening, when the cans are of glass. The pulp of red beet-root passed through a sieve and added to white sauce or mayonnaise gives a beautiful red tint; but the flavor, while excellent for a salad or as vegetable sauce, would be unsuitable for serving with fish.
Grenadines of Beef with Mushrooms and Poivrade Sauce.—Take as many slices of fillet of beef, cut three quarters of an inch thick, as you require. Trim them to a pear shape, three and a half inches long and three wide at the broadest part. Lard these with bacon, and put them into a sauté pan with a gill of brown sauce and a glass of sherry (half the sauce if there are very few grenadines); let them cook gently for fifteen minutes. Dissolve a piece of glaze the size of a walnut by putting it in a cup which is set in boiling water; when dissolved, take up the grenadines, dish them in a circle, and glaze them (a brush is properly used for this purpose, but the glaze can be spread with a knife dipped in hot water). Fill the centre of the circle with a pyramid of small mushrooms mixed with a gill and a half of poivrade sauce.[88-*]
Fillets of Beef à la Grande-Bretagne.—Cut two pounds of fillet into neat slices an inch thick; slit them (with a small French boning-knife or small penknife) in such a way that you form a pocket in each the mouth or opening of which is smaller than the pocket itself. This can be done by laying the fillet flat on a board, laying your hand on the top of it, making a slit two inches wide, then with the point of the knife enlarging the slit inside, but not the entrance to it. The opening should extend half-way through; into this put a force-meat made of horseradish sauce[89-*] and macaroni boiled and cut fine. The force-meat must be used sparingly, so as not to increase materially the thickness of the fillet; fasten the opening of each with a wooden toothpick. Sauté these fillets for fifteen minutes; glaze them as directed in last recipe; arrange them in a circle, with a pyramid of tiny potato balls in the centre. Pour rich brown sauce round.
Mutton Cutlets à la d’Uxelles.—Cut some cutlets from the neck of mutton, leaving two bones to each, trim very carefully, remove the upper part of one bone, split the cutlets without separating them at the bone, spread some thick d’Uxelles sauce[90-*] inside, fold the cutlets together, run a toothpick through them, and broil for four minutes on each side over a hot fire. Have a layer of chopped mushrooms stewed in butter in the dish, lay the cutlets on it, pour over some d’Uxelles sauce, and garnish with truffles, cut in very thin circles.
Mutton Cutlets à la Milanais.—Take six cutlets from a neck of mutton (“French chops,” many butchers term them), mix equal quantities of grated Parmesan cheese and cracker meal. Dip the cutlets into rich thick brown sauce,[90-†] then into the cracker and Parmesan; shake off loose crumbs; dip them now into beaten egg in which a little salt and very finely chopped parsley and chives have been mixed, and then dip them a second time in the Parmesan and bread crumbs; drop them into a kettle of very hot fat; in four minutes they will be done. Do not fry more than four at a time, as too many cool the fat. Dish them in a circle with spaghetti dressed with Parmesan in the centre.