Grilled Beef Tenderloin

[Dave the Cook]

And why would you? Is there a finishing step that requires the grill?

[Goatjunky]

Im calling it poached for lack of a better description. Its in an aluminum pan. My husband has a whim.. i want to let him do it, but its in my nature to have to research it

[Keith_W]

Some restaurants precook their steaks by poaching them in butter. It is then held in butter at 50-55C (50C for rare, 55C for medium rare). When an order comes, the steak is removed from the butter and thrown on a grille for a brief period to develop colour on the surface before the steaks are served.

If you have a sous-vide machine, you can approximate this by sous-vide'ing your steak at 55C with a big knob of butter. The advantages of this method are many - temperature control is more precise, and you use much less butter.

If you don't have a sous-vide machine, you'll have to do it the manual way. Melt the butter and hold it at 55C, then place your steaks in the melted butter. If it is a tender cut, then it only needs an hour. The easiest way to hold the temperature that steady is to place it in a low temperature oven and check the temperature frequently with a thermometer.

Edited August 4, 2013 by Keith_W (log)

[gfweb]

Pioneer Woman does some strange things.

[Goatjunky]

I agree. But humoring the husband, without trying to ruin a tenderloin, and I cant help but love an experiment

[BeeZee]

I happened to see the episode this morning, as well. He put some large tenderloins into disposable aluminum pans, poured a lot of melted butter over them (guessing there was 1/2" in the bottom of the pan) and seasoned liberally. It appeared that he cooked them until well browned on one side, basting with the butter, then turned. Not so much poached as roasted in butter? The meat, when she sliced it, was pretty rare. I'm thinking they do that for keeping the large tenderloin from drying out and since they are cooking such huge quantities on the ranch, it makes it easier to manage.

High end steak restaurants "finish" their meat with butter, so I guess it's just the cowboy method.