To Garnish a Fillet of Beef.
As I have mentioned before, a fillet of beef is generally served with mushrooms; sometimes with different vegetables à la jardinière; sometimes with French pease; sometimes with potatoes cut into little round balls, and fried in boiling lard, called potatoes à la Parisienne on a French bill of fare; sometimes with stuffed tomatoes; sometimes skewers are put in stuck through a turnip carved into a cup, and this cup holds horse-radish. But some people say skewers remind them of steamboat cooking; then some people are not easily pleased, anyway; and who remembers of having seen so many skewers on steamboats, after all? Not that I am particularly advocating skewers, but I think dishes taste better, as a general thing, when they are decorated in almost any manner. I once saw at a dinner in Paris hot slices of roast or baked fillet of beef, tastefully arranged on a platter, with sauce Hollandaise (rather thick) poured over each slice in the form of a ring. It was a success.
The manner of garnishing a fillet of beef à la Godard and à la Provençale, etc., with truffles, quenelles, livers, olives, etc., all stewed with wines, stocks, etc., I will not explain. It is enough to make one groan to think of learning to make them, and more than ever to eat them.