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, any way; 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 ar-ranged 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.

To Roast a Fillet of Beef. Lard it, and bind it carefully to the skewer with a small wire; cover the fillet with sweet salad-oil and a little lemon-juice. Do not place it too near the fire at first, as it would scorch the larding. Baste it frequently.

A professional cook would glaze the fillet two or three times with a glazing-brush, beginning the first time about five minutes before taking it away from the fire, then glazing it again when it is on the dish to be served.

Glaze is merely strong stock boiled down until it is almost a thick jelly. When the fillet is carved at table, the little juice which falls into the dish should be poured over each of the slices.