Usually a little savoury butter is spread on the dish, the fillets laid on this, and then a tiny ball of the same butter is placed on each fillet as it is to be served, after it has been garnished with fried potatoes, ribbon potatoes, or, indeed, potatoes in any shape or form, or any other vegetables you choose. More generally, however, in England, the fillet is cut into slices from ½in. to ¾in. thick, and then stamped out with a cutter into rounds from 2in. to 2½in. in diameter. These are then batted out gently, and. either broiled as above or sautes, i.e., each round is seasoned with pepper, salt, chopped parsley, and a. very little shallot, then laid in a well-buttered saute-pan, sprinkled with a few drops of sherry and stock covered with a buttered paper, and cooked over a. sharp fire for five or six minutes, turning them only once in the process. They are then dished either en couronne or straight down the dish, and served with a garnish of turned olives stuffed with mayonnaise, or anchovy, or any other savoury butter, small glazed onions or carrots, broiled mushrooms, or tomatoes, etc., as you please; or if dished en couronne, they may be garnished outside with the vegetables and any rich brown sauce you please, the centre being filled up with horseradish cream, shrimp or oyster sauce, or any nice ragout to taste.

These, of course, take their names from their garnish and sauce. Grenadins are, properly speaking, pear-shaped (Fig. 5), and thickly and regularly larded, but they are more generally seen round-shaped, like the medaillons, Fig. 6, which are smaller rounds, larded more sparsely, or round the edge only, with thin strips of French or larding bacon; whilst escalopes should be long, narrow strips; but, as a matter of fact, the names are used pretty much indiscriminately according to the fancy of the chef. Lastly, there are the towrne-doe, which derive their name, it is said, from the fact that they axe usually served with alternate slices of some other substance, and, so to speak, turn their backs on one another. Like noisettes, these tourne-dos are of somewhat modern invention, and the names only came, I believe, into cornmon use in the last half century. For larding, use very fat, firm bacon, which should be kept in a cold place, on ice, if possible; cut this bacon into blocks about 1 ½in. to 2in. long, then slice these from ¼in. to ⅛in. thick, and cut these slices again into strips of the same width (these strips are called "lardoons"), being careful to see that these widths will fit the lording needle, a straight tube of metal tapering to a point at one end, and slit into four at the wider end (see Figs. 7 and 8 for the lardoon and the bacon-threaded larding needle). The size of the lardoons requires attention, for if they are too large to fit the needle they will be pressed out whilst being drawn through the meat, while, if too small, the needle will not keep its hold of them.

Fig. 6.

It is evident that these dishes can be varied ad infinitum by changing the sauces and garnishes used for them; for instance, arrange on a hot dish some nicely mashed potato, shaping these heaps into rounds flattened on the top, and on each of these place a delicately larded grenadin (of the round sort), and then fill up the top, by means of a rose pipe and bag, with a rosette of either sauce Cambridge, Caza-nova, or Creme Raifort a l'Alceste and send to table at once; these would manifestly be grenadins a la Cambridge, or Cazanova, or a l'Alceste, according to the sauce chosen. Or, again, choose pear-shaped, neatly larded grenadins, and dish them alternately with crisply fried croutons cut to match, and spread with anchovy butter, garnishing outside with scraped horseradish, and filling the centre with oyster sauce, when they could be styled tournedos aux huitres, or a la Whitstable, or aux Marennes, as you choose. Almost every chef adapts names in this way, as the fancy strikes him, when he thinks of some slight variation of an every day dish.

Of course if this variation should happen to be somewhat out of the common, the name becomes known, and after a time passes into the kitchen vocabulary, where it takes a recognised place, like the Chateaubriand, and the cotelettes a la Reform, etc, but more often the fame is purely local and of transitory importance. In the ordinary good French menus special names, unless of first rank, are seldom given, the dish taking its name from the accessories and sauce which garnish it. This is an excellent plan, as it conveys far more idea of the nature of the dish than, say, cotelettes a la Sirdar, or filets a la presidente, both of which have ere now figured on menus de circonstance. A very delicate yet nameless dish is made by mounting each little larded round of beef on a hot artichoke bottom, previously flavoured with white pepper and salt, a little minced tarragon, oil and vinegar, and then serving it with a very rich supreme sauce round it. Another variante is to broil the round and unlarded filet, and mount it on little mounds of rather stiff mushroom puree, placing just enough very firm mayonnaise on the top to fix there a turned olive stuffed with an anchovy preserved in oil, or a little anchovy butter.

It should be remembered that a touch of savoury butter, anchovy especially, both on the dish and on the meat, adds enormously to the flavour of beef or mutton. For instance, try this: Have ready some croutons two or three sizes larger than your grenadins, lay on each of these a broiled slice of tomato, and on this again the delicately broiled grenadin, with on the top a rosette of Perigord butter. As French women say, vous m'en direz des nouvelles, if your cook has taken trouble with the dish. For this Perigord butter, mince down five or six good sized truffles, and cook them for a few minutes in a gill of Madeira or sherry with a seasoning of pepper; pound these when cool in a mortar, with 4oz. of butter and half of a well washed anchovy till perfectly smooth, and use.

Fig. 7.

Fig. 8.