At first glance, Fanny Longfellow's filet de boeuf recipe seems simple and straightforward. However, if taken at face value, the modern cook will end up with the wrong cut of meat, baked until it turns to leather in an oven for two hours! To adapt the recipe, we turned to the talented Julia Child, who spent years translating old French recipes for current cooking techniques.

According to the beef chapter in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the American and French cuts of beef are completely different. So, a “filet” is actually the tenderloin, a large cut of meat. We couldn’t find individual beef tenderloin steaks at the store, so we divided ours into steaks from the American “porterhouse steak” section, each about 2 inches thick. Due to more efficient modern cooking methods, we elected to skip pounding the meat so they would not overcook. Finally, this recipe creates an abundance of gravy, which we didn't have a problem with! The leftovers work well with biscuits for a simple breakfast.

The Historic Recipe

This recipe comes from a manuscript book of lists of household goods & recipes kept by Fanny Longfellow from around her marriage in 1843 to 1858. The volume today is part of her papers at Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS.

The original recipe, in Fanny Longfellow's handwriting, reads:

Take a filet de boeuf, beat it well, pierce it with fine lard, half cook it in an oven with pepper & salt. Take a saucepan as large as the beef can go into, Put a morsel of butter, with a spoon & a half of flour, cook it until it is yellow, add a glass of meat soup, a glass of white wine, parsley hashed very fine, échalots, a point of garlic. Put your beef in this sauce with half a dozen small onions, cook it two hours with moderate fire. A quarter of an hour before serving add mushrooms as you like.

Filet of Beef

Tenderloin steak in a rich, flavorful sauce.

Ingredients:

• 4 beef tenderloin steaks about two inches thick
• 4 tablespoons lard (or substitute 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil)
• 10 ounces small pearl onions, peeled
• 2 challots, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 ounces mushrooms
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 5 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups beef broth
• 1 cup dry white wine (like Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc)
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped

Instructions

1. If you have an entire beef tenderloin, prepare it by removing the silverskin by sliding a butter knife under the silver tissue, releasing it from the meat. Take a paper towel to grip the silver skin and remove it in a sheet. Divide the tenderloin into steaks about 2 inches thick.
2. Liberally salt and pepper your steaks and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Cut four small slits with a knife into the steak and place dollops of lard in the slits, or lather the steaks in the fat of your choice.
4. Add steaks and pearl onions to an oven-safe pan. Place in oven to “half cook,” as the recipe says, or until it reaches an internal temperature of 120 degrees Farenheight, about 17 minutes.
5. Remove pan from oven and place on stovetop on medium-high heat. For now, remove the steaks, but keep all the juices and pearl onions in the pan. Add shallots, mushrooms, and salt to the fat, and sauté until onions are translucent and mushrooms are starting to brown, about 7 minutes.
6. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove shallots, onions, mushroom, and garlic from the pan and reserve for later.
7. To add color, brown the steaks in a new pan with two tablespoons lard or olive oil for two minutes each side. Deglaze the pan with a bit of the broth, scraping up the fond. Return the steaks to the plate to rest and return the liquid to your beef broth.
8. Make a gravy with a roux base. Put butter and flour in the first pan over medium heat, stirring frequently until the roux has turned golden and smells nutty, about 5-8 minutes. Slowly add beef broth to the pan, whisking so it combines with the roux and scraping up any of the bits – or “fond” – on the bottom. Add the white wine. Salt and pepper to taste and bring to a simmer on medium-high until thickened, about 5 minutes. This will cook off the alcohol and reduce your gravy.
9. Return your filets and any drippings to the pan to finish cooking, about 5 minutes. The USDA recommends that you cook your beef until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit. This will be well done. Let it rest for 3 minutes to finish cooking and so the juices don’t run when you cut into it.
10. Return the shallot, onion, mushroom, and garlic mixture. Garnish with chopped parsley, and serve.