Recipe no. 205 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 105.
Ingredients
- Beef fillet
- Lardons
- String
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Pine mushrooms
- Provencal-style tomatoes
Preparation
- Trimming the filletTrim the fillet carefully, removing all sinewy parts and excess fat.
- Larding and tyingCut small lardons and lard the fillet with them. Tie it to give it a nice shape.
- Setting on the spitLay it on a spit. Apply a wide skewer fixed at each end of the fillet. Put 2 turns of string around the middle.
- RoastingSet it before a clear fire, basting from time to time with a few spoonfuls of olive oil in the dripping pan. Medium fillet: 45 minutes; large fillet: 1 hour. Salt it twice during cooking.
- ServingWhen ready, unspit it and remove the string. Dress it on the platter surrounded with pine mushrooms and Provencal-style tomatoes. Skim off the fat from the juice, pour it over the fillet and serve.
Reboul's text
Trim your fillet carefully, removing all the sinewy parts and the excess fat. Cut small lardons and lard the fillet with them; then tie it up to give it a nice shape. Lay it on a spit; apply a wide skewer across it, fixed at each end of the fillet; also put 2 turns of string around the middle. Set it before a clear fire, basting it from time to time with a few spoonfuls of olive oil placed in the dripping pan (a medium fillet cooks in 45 minutes, a large one takes an hour); salt it twice during cooking.
When it is ready, unspit it, remove the string, dress it on the platter surrounded with pine mushrooms and Provencal-style tomatoes (see those recipes); skim off the fat from the juice, pour it over the fillet and serve.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul himself gives certain Provençal names in this recipe: Filet de bœuf à la Provençale. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the other words used, in mistralian spelling: each of these forms is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary, and the link opens the entry. Our dictionary does not yet attest the word Filet de bœuf à la Provençale: we therefore quote it as the author printed it, without adding a form of our own.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| para | trim |
| lardoun | lardons |
| enfeissela | tie |
| broucheto | skewer |
| desgreissa | skim off the fat |
| jus | juice |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 205, page 105. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.