Conference turris::cooks

  What was the dish like that you had? Chateaubriand is made in lots of
  different ways, but the meat is always the small end of beef
  tenderloin, which isn't an easy cut to find in most supermarkets. My
  favorite recipe calls for the tenderloin to be cut into steaks about
  1-1/4" thick, and pan-fried in clarified butter, in which you've
  sauteed sliced mushrooms (and maybe some onions if you like) until
  there's just about no water left in them. Do this over medium-high
  heat until rare. You need clarified butter, because regular butter
  will burn at the necessary temperature. And cooking at a lower temp
  will steam the meat and make it tough, instead of quickly sealing the
  meat. Then, near the end of the cooking time, add about 1/4 cup of
  cognac and light it (watch out!). When the fire's out, either call the
  insurance company, or slice the meat onto the serving plates like
  you'd do with london broil. 

  Does this sound anything like what you had?

  Personally, any preparation of beef tenderloin is fine with me.

  - Mike

    The Joy of Cooking has a version of the recipe similar to what you've
    described.                                                   
    
    					andrew

  I thought this was mentioned somewhere, but I couldn't find it.
  Clarified butter is just butter that you've melted, let settle, and
  poured off the clear yellow liquid (this is the clarified part). The
  white stuff that remains is milk solids, which is the part which burns
  first. Since it's impossible to completely separate the white solids
  from the clear liquid, don't worry about it. You can still use the
  butter that's left with the solids on toast and other places where the
  use of butter isn't as critical as in baking. And you can also use
  clarified butter for all your butter frying, so it might be worth
  making up a pound or so at a time, and freezing it in small blocks (we
  do it in an ice cube tray). Keep them in a tightly sealed container,
  though, or they pick up nasty odors from the freezer.

  - Mike

  PS: You can also clarify the amount you need just before you're going
  to use it.

  > Since it's impossible to completely separate the white solids
  > from the clear liquid, don't worry about it.
    
    Not true...  what you do is this.  Put the clarified butter in a
    tapered container (smaller at the bottom), then chill.  After the
    butter solidifies, remove the solid block from the container (that's
    why it should be tapered) and slice off the milk solids from the
    bottom.  Simple!
    
    					andrew
    

Another way to get completely clarified butter is to cook the melted butter
over low heat for about 4-5 hours.  Then, skim the froth off the top and
pour the butter off the solids on the bottom.  The pure butterfat is called
ghee in Indian cooking.  The long cooking time partially caramelizes the
milk solids and gives the butterfat a slight nutty flavor.  The lower
burning point components of the butterfat also have a chance to oxidize and
drop out to join the solids.  As a result, ghee can be heated much hotter
than regular clarified butter without burning.

It's very bad for you, of course, if you are trying to avoid saturated fats.

--PSW

    This is late, I know, but I just got back into this file after
    about a year's absence. 
    
    My interpretation (and most restaurants' where I've had it) of 
    Chateaubriand is basically the center portion of a beef tenderloin
    simply cooked (roasted or grilled) and served with Bearnaise sauce.
    
    Ken....