I will be very specific about the fillet of beef, as it is easily
managed at home, and is very expensive ordered from the _restaurateur_.
His price is generally ten dollars for a dressed and cooked fillet of
beef for a dinner for ten or twelve persons. To buy it from the butcher
costs a dollar a pound when dressed; three pounds are quite sufficient
for ten or twelve persons. To lard it (an affair of ten minutes) would
cost ten cents more; a box of French canned mushrooms, an additional
forty cents; a little stock, five cents.
One sees a fillet of beef at almost every dinner party. “That same
fillet, with mushrooms,” a frequent diner-out will say. I hope to see it
continued, for among the substantials there is nothing more
satisfactory.
A good butcher will always deliver a fillet of beef already dressed; if,
however, it is necessary to have it dressed at home, the _modus
operandi_ is as follows: