Fillet of Beef.
I will be very specific about the fillet of beef, as it is easily managed at home, and is very expensive ordered from the restaurateur. His price is generally ten dollars for a dressed and cooked fillet of beef for a dinner for ten or twelve persons. To buy it from the butcher costs a dollar a pound when dressed; three pounds are quite sufficient for ten or twelve persons. To lard it (an affair of ten minutes) would cost ten cents more; a box of French canned mushrooms, an additional forty cents; a little stock, five cents.
One sees a fillet of beef at almost every dinner party. “That same fillet, with mushrooms,” a frequent diner-out will say. I hope to see it continued, for among the substantials there is nothing more satisfactory.
A good butcher will always deliver a fillet of beef already dressed; if, however, it is necessary to have it dressed at home, the modus operandi is as follows: