Beef Tenderloin

[deltadoc]

Sorry!  Missed the "whole" part.  I crank the oven up to 550 F, do as the other poster stated and rub with olive oil, S&P.  Then stick it on your roasting rack in a roasting pan and into the 550 oven for about 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to about 325-350 and continue cooking until internal temperature is about 130-135.

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doesn't residual heat continue to cook it quite a bit after you pull it out?

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Every oven is different, so you have to "know" your oven to get what you want.

Yes, you're right, the meat continues to "cook" after tenting it.

Whatever works for you is great!

doc

[paulraphael]

The only place I know of where I could walk out tomorrow and get a dry-aged USDA Prime tenderloin is Lobel's, where a 3.5-pound whole tenderloin costs $174.48.

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Balducci's (R.I.P.) used to have it for a fraction the cost. And it was delicious. I haven't looked around since then (the only whole tenderloins I ever roast are the ones my mom buys over the holidays). have you tried Jefferson Market on 6th? the've become my favorite poor man's high end butcher.

At any rate, thanks everyone for the feedback. The roast came out great.

I cut off the silverskin and biggest chunks of fat and put it on a rack over a tray for 2 days in my mom's fridge (40 degrees). It didn't smell at all, nor did it drip.

The afternoon before cooking it I trimmed and shaved the dry parts and much of the remaining fat on the outside, and tied it at up to get fairly consistent diameter.

I preheated a roasting pan in a 500 degree oven, then put the pan over a hot flame on the stove and seared the meat on both sides (especially the smooth side, which i left on top).

I then popped it in the oven and let it sit at 500 degrees until the middle hit 120. My mom has a remote probe thermometer, so pulling it out at the right time required not even a lick of skill or even attention.

I tented the meat very loosely for about 20 minutes. in that time i deglazed the pan with white wine and added the deglazing liquid to a brown sauce that i'd previously prepared with a duxelle infused, demiglace based brown sauce.

the meat ended up 135 to 140 in the middle, with a crisp, mahogany brown skin. we served it plated on top of a small pool of the sauce, so no one would be tempted to drown the meat.

Overall I give the meat an A-. It was tender and juicy, but not as much as the prime tenderloin my mom bought (for double the price) last year. It also had less flavor. But it was perfectly pleasant. And I was the only one there nerdy enough to be sweating the details.

I have no way of knowing what difference (if any) the makeshift dry aging made. I will say that there was more marbling in the meat than I expected. Tenderloin isn't by any means 100% lean, so it makes sense to me that prime would be better. And authentic dry aging does seem to bring out more flavor than what I was able to do with my shenanigans.

[zenpup]

Well, I've now got a large, tied, not larded 7-1/2 pound beef tenderloin roast in my fridge. Prime, darn thing cost nearly a car payment.

But DH and I are bickering over the best way to cook it...I'm voting for a straight 450 - 500 degree cooking time to rare, he's voting for longer and slower perhaps in the 375 degree range...also to rare. I plant to pull it from the oven between 120 -125 degrees...

I tend to be more of a pot-roast kinda girl, so big fancy roasts aren't my forte...

Don't want to overcook a small fortune in beef. Any good advice? TIA...

[Alex]

7½ pounds??!! Yowza. Must be from that Three Mile Island herd.

I've always browned the outside in a large skillet, then finished in the oven at 350. Works fine, and less chance of overcooking.

[paulraphael]

I've had great results with high temp roasting. A tenderloin is so thin that it takes very little time for the inside of the meat to come up to rare/medium rare temps, so I see little need to slow down the process. the point of very low/verys slow roasting is to encourage the enzyme activity that takes place between 70 degrees and cooking temps, but with a piece of prime tenderloin, I haven't felt the need to do it.

What I've done is this:

-Preheat the oven to 500, with the roasting pan in the oven, while the meat comes up to room temperature. pat the meat very dry after trimming.

-take the roating pan out and put in on the stove on high heat. coat it with clarified butter.

-put the tenderloin in the pan and lightly brown it on three sides.

-with the fourth side down, put it in the middle of the oven.

-cook til the internal temp is 110 to 115 degrees.

-pull it out and tent it lightly with foil. let it rest in a warm place for at least 15 minutes.

[qrn]

I just did a small ,(3lb) t/l. trimmed all the silver skin and fat. Then I cold smoked(100-120º) it for about 20 minutes. Then I seared it on a grill that was 750º, till it had nice sear marks on it. (probably 10 minutes.) Then in a 350º oven till it was 128º internal. Then wraped in foil for a half hour in a nice warm place..Was a nice even med rare color and just perfect...Good luck...

Bud

[Batard]

7.5 pounds is the usual size of a whole tenderloin when I buy them. Usually I ask the butcher to trim the silver skin; if I'm paying for prime, they better do it for me automatically.

I don't have a stove large enough to brown off a piece of loin that large -- the loin is probably 2.5 feet long. I would either brown it on the grill just to sear the outside -- careful -- and finish in a 200 degree oven until it hits about 5-10 degrees below where you want the meat to finish. It will cook the rest of the way while it is resting. Alternately, I will cook the meat in the grill but away from the heat at the same temperature to the same doneness. You have to babysit more when you do it on the grill, but the results are worth it.

I'm not going to get into the whole high heat versus low heat roasting discussion thing. I have cooked roasts on consecutive nights using both methods, and for me the slow method results in a more buttery texture. Plus the meat loses much less moisture during slow cooking and you end up with a much juicier product. If I were paying for prime, that is the only way I would cook it. Be gentle.

Edited December 25, 2007 by Batard (log)

[spikemom]

I cooked one tonight for our Christmas Eve family dinner. Ours was 6.75 pounds, trimmed & tied. I follow the recipe on p. 183 of The Perfect Recipe by Pam Anderson. Very simple: Bring meat to room temp before cooking. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rub roast with 2 T olive oil, 1 T kosher salt, 2 T coarsely ground black pepper. Roast on a wire rack above a shallow roasting pan till internal temp is 125 degrees F....about 45 to 50 minutes for medium-rare. Let rest until internal temp falls to 90 to 100 degrees F. I used an electric knife to slice it. There were 10 of us, and there weren't a lot of leftovers.

[infernooo]

Sear it on the stove top in beef drippings/fat, then put it in an 140-150F oven until internal temp reaches 135. Pull it and leave for at least half an hour to carve. You will have a beautiful piece of beef with a nice seared crust and an even rare/pink colour and texture on the entire interior (unlike cooking it at a higher temperature where the outside inch or so of the meat takes the brunt of the heat and actually gets cooked to well done).

[pax]

I've had good luck with bringing it to room temp, rub in seasonings, then slow, dry roasting it at 225F in a tightly covered Dutch oven.

When it hits 120 I pull it, and let it sit in the Dutch oven with the lid loosely on, and cook off bisquits or roast veg in the hot oven.

Then I switch to convection roast, raise the temp to 450F, uncover, baste in juices and pop back in the oven til the outside is crusty, about ten minutes.

I do the au jus as it's resting/being carved.

It's pink on the inside, crusty yummy on the outside, and I haven't messed it up yet, which is the real bonus.

I hit on this because I was sick of trying to sear the outside on the stove top before cooking, and the au jus and texture I get when I sear at the end is better.

There's probably some good reason I shouldn't do this and if someone wants to tell me, I'll read it. Maybe through my fingers, wincing, but I'll read it.

[paulraphael]

Sear it on the stove top in beef drippings/fat, then put it in an 140-150F oven until internal temp reaches 135. Pull it and leave for at least half an hour to carve. You will have a beautiful piece of beef with a nice seared crust and an even rare/pink colour and texture on the entire interior (unlike cooking it at a higher temperature where the outside inch or so of the meat takes the brunt of the heat and actually gets cooked to well done).

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I'd be interested in trying this method if I ever encountered an oven that could be set to 140 (and reliably hold the temp). Mine doesn't go lower than 170, and it's not terribly stable at taht setting.

No matter what, I pull the meat way before 135 ... that's hotter than I want it to be after resting.

For what it's woth, if you use a really high temp, like 500, you do not end up with an inch of well done meat. maybe a quarter inch ... a tiny fraction of the whole thicknes of the roast.

[RAHiggins1]

7.5 pounds is the usual size of a whole tenderloin when I buy them. Usually I ask the butcher to trim the silver skin; if I'm paying for prime, they better do it for me automatically.

I don't have a stove large enough to brown off a piece of loin that large -- the loin is probably 2.5 feet long. I would either brown it on the grill just to sear the outside -- careful -- and finish in a 200 degree oven until it hits about 5-10 degrees below where you want the meat to finish. It will cook the rest of the way while it is resting. Alternately, I will cook the meat in the grill but away from the heat at the same temperature to the same doneness. You have to babysit more when you do it on the grill, but the results are worth it.

I'm not going to get into the whole high heat versus low heat roasting discussion thing. I have cooked roasts on consecutive nights using both methods, and for me the slow method results in a more buttery texture. Plus the meat loses much less moisture during slow cooking and you end up with a much juicier product. If I were paying for prime, that is the only way I would cook it. Be gentle.

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Heat olive oil in your roasting pan at 400º, then sear the outside in the roasting pan in the oven turning it as needed. You might put some garlic in the oil just to give it a nice flavor.

[Batard]

Heat olive oil in your roasting pan at 400º, then sear the outside in the roasting pan in the oven turning it as needed. You might put some garlic in the oil just to give it a nice flavor.

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RAH, thank you this tip.

It was my "AHA!" moment of the day. Like most great ideas, they just seem so obvious -- after someone tells you! Thanks again.

[zenpup]

Y'all are the best! I used sort of a mishmash of techniques, and it was perfect! It actually weight 8 pounds, trimmed and tied, and just fit into a tri-ply roasting pan cater-cornered.

So I put a nice big, thick schmear of unsalted butter mixed with salt, pepper, roasted garlic paste and fresh thyme all over it and boosted it into a 450 deg. (turned off the convection) oven. It reached 118 in 50 minutes. Let it set while I finished up the "sides" and a pan sauce with shallots and Madeira.

Nice rare-medium rare from end to end and a great crust...

Now they all wanna come back next year for a reprise.

I'll need another mortgage.