1817—Filets de Levraut à la Mornay

Trim two leverets’ fillets, and cut them into collops, one inch in diameter and one-third inch thick. Prepare (1) the same number of bread-crumb croûtons as there are collops, and make them of the same size as the latter, though half as thick; (2) the same number of thick slices of truffle, cooked at the last minute in a little Madeira.

Toss the collops of fillet quickly in clarified butter; colour the croûtons in butter at the same time, and mix the latter with the collops and the truffles in a saucepan.

Swill the sautépan with the Madeira in which the truffles have cooked; add a little succulent pale glaze; reduce sufficiently; strain the sauce through a sieve; finish it liberally with butter; add it to the sautéd collops, and serve the latter in a very hot timbale.

N.B.—This recipe was given by the Comte de Mornay himself to the proprietors of the famous Parisian restaurant, and for a long while the dish was one of the specialities of a house no longer extant.