1472 | Filet Mignon à la Albert Pulitzer.
—Cut out from a piece of fillet of beef of about two pounds six small even fillets; neatly pare them all around, lay them on a dish until further action. Place in a saucepan one finely chopped sound shallot, with a teaspoonful of butter; let slowly simmer on the range for three minutes without browning; add to it six mushrooms, cut into small dice-shaped pieces, and two sound truffles, cut the same way; pour in one tablespoonful of Madeira wine, reduce until almost dry, then thicken with one tablespoonful of Espagnole sauce (No. 151). Cook for two minutes, take off the fire and let cool.
Thoroughly pound in a mortar two ounces of lean, raw veal, season with a heaped teaspoonful of salt and the third of a saltspoonful of cayenne pepper; mix well together, then add the whites of two raw eggs, mix thoroughly again. Gradually add a gill of sweet cream, continually stirring meanwhile; then press it through a fine sieve into a bowl, place it in the ice-box until called for. Mix a tablespoonful of salt with a teaspoonful of white pepper; equally season the six fillets all around. Have on the hot range, two tablespoonfuls of very hot clarified butter in a sautoire, then place the fillets into it, one beside another, and cook on one side only for two minutes. Remove then from the sautoire, place on a dish, the cooked side up. Equally divide the mushrooms, truffles, etc., over each fillet, and with a table-knife give a nice dome shape.
Take the preparation from the ice-box; completely cover the surface of the force on each fillet with this, and with the knife give them also a nice dome shape. Take six small mushrooms, cut off the stems, place one button on each fillet, right in the centre. Cut a good, sound truffle into six equal slices, then with a tube half an inch in diameter cut out from each slice six pieces—quarter-moon shape. Arrange six pieces around each mushroom at equal distances, so that they represent wind-mills. Carefully place each fillet in a buttered sautoire; place on the hot range to cook for one minute only. Then put them in a moderate oven for five minutes.
Remove them from out the oven; place on a hot serving-dish six round, fried, bread croûtons the size of the fillets, one inch thick. Dress one fillet on top of each croûton, pour two gills of hot Colbert sauce (No. 190) around the dish and send to the table.