Filet de Bœuf Godard

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy lidded casserole just large enough for the beef fillet
• •Long narrow boning knife and clean metal skewer
• •Butcher's string
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Food processor with chilled bowl
• •Coffee spoon and 2 tablespoons for shaping quenelles
• •Wide shallow poaching pan
• •Small heavy saucepan and fine-mesh sieve
• •Long warmed serving platter and sauceboat

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the garnish

   Keep the veal, pork fat, cream, and food-processor bowl thoroughly cold. Shape 8 small olive-like pieces from the truffles and cut 4 thin lozenges for the decorated quenelles; mince every trimming and reserve it for the forcemeat. Finely chop enough mushroom stems to make 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 20 g). Full decorative turning of the mushroom caps was brigade scaffolding; trimming them into neat, evenly sized domes preserves the cooking and the appearance without throwing half the mushrooms away.

2. 2

   Lard the fillet

   Chill the bacon and tongue batons until firm. Push a clean metal skewer lengthwise through the cold fillet to begin 8 narrow, evenly spaced channels, then widen each gently with a slim boning knife. Slide in alternating batons of bacon and salted tongue, 4 of each, keeping them buried inside the meat. Season the outside with 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g) salt and half the black pepper, then retie the fillet firmly. If a channel tears, bring the meat back together with an extra loop of string. It will roast perfectly well.

3. 3

   Make ordinary forcemeat

   Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk for 5 minutes, then squeeze gently. Process the cold veal, pork fat, soaked crumbs, egg yolk, cream, ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 3 g) salt, and white pepper in short pulses until cohesive and smooth. Do not let the mixture grow warm. If it becomes loose or greasy, stop and chill the bowl over ice for 15 minutes; ça se rattrape. Fold in the chopped mushroom stems and minced truffle by hand. Fry a teaspoonful, taste it, and correct the seasoning before covering and chilling the forcemeat.

4. 4

   Cook the side garnishes

   Melt 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) butter in a wide pan. Add the mushroom caps, lemon juice, and ¼ cup (60 ml / 60 g) water, cover, and cook gently for 5 to 7 minutes until tender but still shapely. Lift them out and reserve their cooking liquor. Dust the prepared sweetbreads lightly with the flour, shaking off every excess, then brown them in another 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 28 g) butter. Add ¼ cup (60 ml / 60 g) veal stock and roll the sweetbreads through the reducing liquid until glazed. Warm the prepared cocks' combs and rooster kidneys in the same glaze, or glaze the additional sweetbreads if using the home substitution. Hold everything covered over the gentlest heat.

5. 5

   Carry out the Poëlings

   Cook the larded fillet according to Poëlings (No. 250), using a heavy covered vessel only just large enough to contain it. Do not add liquid while the beef itself cooks; poëling is butter cooking over aromatics, not braising. Begin checking the centre early and remove the fillet when it reaches 115 to 118°F (46 to 48°C), since glazing will finish it. Cover loosely and rest it. Complete the referenced preparation, then retain every drop of its strained, thoroughly degreased cooking liquor.

6. 6

   Reduce the Godard sauce

   Boil the Madeira in a small saucepan until reduced by half. Add the reserved mushroom liquor, optional truffle liquid, remaining veal stock, and all the cooking liquor furnished by Poëlings (No. 250). Reduce steadily until the sauce is mahogany-dark and nappant, meaning it coats the back of a spoon in a clear glossy layer. Strain it, skim every trace of surface grease, and whisk in the remaining 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 42 g) cold butter off the heat. If the sauce separates, put 1 tablespoon of cool stock in a clean pan and whisk the broken sauce into it gradually. Ça se rattrape. Reserve about ⅓ cup (80 ml / 80 g) for glazing and coating the garnishes; keep the rest warm for the sauceboat.

7. 7

   Poach the quenelles

   Bring a wide pan of salted water to the barest tremble. With a coffee spoon, shape 8 small quenelles from the cold forcemeat; use 2 tablespoons to form 4 larger oval quenelles. Slip them into the water and poach without boiling until resilient, cooked through, and at least 160°F (71°C) at the centre, about 7 minutes for the small quenelles and 9 to 11 minutes for the large. If the water boils and the edges begin to roughen, pull the pan off the heat and let them finish in the hot water. Drain carefully. Set one tongue lozenge and one truffle lozenge on each large quenelle, fixing them with a dot of sauce.

8. 8

   Glaze and assemble

   Heat the upper oven to 475°F (245°C), or set the broiler to moderate. Remove the string from the rested fillet, brush it with the reserved sauce, and expose it to the upper heat for 1 to 3 minutes, just until the glaze clings and shines. Watch it without wandering. Set the whole fillet on a warm long platter. Arrange separate small heaps of the mushroom caps, small quenelles, glazed sweetbreads, cocks' combs and rooster kidneys, and olive-shaped truffles around it. Place the 4 decorated oval quenelles at the two ends and two sides. Spoon only enough sauce over the garnishes to make them gleam, then send the remaining Godard sauce separately in a warm sauceboat. Carve the fillet at the table. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask a specialist butcher for lamb sweetbreads already soaked, blanched, and pressed. Prepared cocks' combs and rooster kidneys are rarer still. If they cannot be secured, use additional lamb sweetbread pieces and say plainly what changed: the platter loses two traditional textures, but it keeps the glazed offal character of the Godard garnish.
• •Good preserved whole black truffles are the classical pantry's honest answer outside the fresh season. Drain them, save their liquid for the sauce, and avoid truffle oil, which gives perfume without the truffle's earthy texture.
• •Use strong, unsalted brown veal stock. The sauce reduces severely, so a salty carton becomes brine before it becomes glossy. If commercial stock is your only option, dilute it slightly and reduce a spoonful first to judge its salt.
• •A thermometer earns its place here. The fillet cooks once under its cover and again during glazing; pulling it from the poëling at 115 to 118°F (46 to 48°C) leaves room for a warm pink centre after the final heat.
• •Serve a structured red Bordeaux or another Cabernet-led French red with enough freshness to meet the truffle and sweetbreads. The platter needs bread for the sauce and little else besides a sharply dressed green salad.

Advance Preparation

• •If the sweetbreads arrive raw, soak them in several changes of cold water, blanch them gently, press them under a light weight, and trim them the day before. Keep them covered in the cold.
• •The ordinary forcemeat can be made up to 6 hours ahead and kept very cold. Shape and poach the quenelles only near serving so they remain light.
• •The fillet can be larded, tied, and refrigerated up to 6 hours ahead. Bring it out only while the poëling vessel and garnishes are being organized; the cold batons stay in place more neatly.
• •The mushrooms may be trimmed and the truffle decorations cut earlier in the day. Keep the truffles covered with their reserved liquid so their surface does not dry.
• •Make or acquire the brown veal stock well ahead. The final Godard sauce cannot be completed until the fillet yields its cooking liquor, but all the other sauce components can be measured before guests arrive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 445g)