Filet de Bœuf Régence

Filet de Bœuf Régence (beef fillet in the Régence manner) teaches that grandeur is mostly timing. The fillet is tender before it enters the pot, so the one true thing to know before touching a pan is this: every garnish and every sauce component must be ready to finish before the beef is cooked. The reward is a bronzed, glazed fillet surrounded by ivory quenelles, buttery foie gras, white mushroom heads, cocks' combs, and black truffles, with a sauce deep enough to hold them together.

The original assumed a saucier on staff, a stock never off the fire, a salamander, brigade portions, and enough hands to poach quenelles while someone else reduced the sauce. At home, you need prepared demi-glace, a narrow casserole, an instant-read thermometer, and the broiler in place of the salamander. The separate sauce station and its many hands were scaffolding and can go. The Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168), the Matignon (No. 227), bacon barding, last-minute garnish, distinct heaps, and concentrated sauce are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Pull the beef before it reaches its final temperature, because the glaze and rest will finish it. If the thermometer gets ahead of you, skip the broiler and paint the fillet with boiling glaze instead. Ça se rattrape. The decisive step is taking the fillet from the braise at 48 to 50°C before glazing.