Another roast beef thread: managing tenderloin

I'm interested in hearing what people do with tenderloin roasts, having just had a beginner experience I wasn't all that pleased with.

I got one for yesterday from my local butcher. I don't know how to roast beef; when we have beef around here, we mostly have steaks or stews. So I looked through all my Julia Child cookbooks. These varied in their advice. In some of them she suggests marinating. I rejected that idea because I wanted this first experiment to be a kind of baseline. Instead I rubbed the roast with clarified butter, salt, pepper, garlic and thyme and basted it with more clarified butter.

The cooking time on this cut is apparently a no-brainer and it came out rare, just the way you always see it. However, I should have made the horseradish sauce Julia recommends, or something similar. I had intended to serve it au jus, deglazing the pan with shallots and a red wine reduction. But, I had the reduction ready-- and there were no juices! That was fine because they all stayed in the meat, so it was moist and reasonably flavorful. But anyone who wanted any sauce at all basically had to spoon some reduced red wine on their meat.

I was also not impressed with the outside of the roast. The only time I touch a tenderloin is when someone puts it on my plate at a wedding reception or something. And I had a sample one from Wildfire at a food expo last year. So I may be misremembering, but it seems to me that a slice of tenderloin usually has some kind of char or crust on it that is also rather tasty. Do restaurants sear the meat or somehow cook it differently? Should I try a salt, herb or pepper crust? I just thought the outside appearance of this meat was very blah.

If you want to do something really fancy for a special occasion, look up recipes for Beef Wellington. (I wouldn't attempt to inclued to include one here--its a complicated procedure.) It makes a spectacular appearance, which almost justifies all the work.
Jane

I coat mine with stone ground horseradish mustard, salt and pepper. Get my grill up to 500-600 degrees , sear it for about a minute on both sides then reduce the heat to 350 and roast til 120 internal. Let sit 15-20 minutes and it's medium rare perfection.
Costco and Sam's Club have excellent choice tenderloin roasts for about nine dollars/lb. We've never been disappointed.

rocky29@sbcglobal.net wrote:If you want to do something really fancy for a special occasion, look up recipes for Beef Wellington. (I wouldn't attempt to inclued to include one here--its a complicated procedure.) It makes a spectacular appearance, which almost justifies all the work.
Jane

I was thinking of attempting a Beef Wellington a few weeks ago, but became discouraged by all the anticipated labor involved -- specifically the pastry-related tasks. Then, on Xmas Eve, I was talking to the wife of a local chef who told me that he uses store-bought filo dough on his Wellington. Store-bought filo seems slightly "wrong" for Wellington, but if it saves 2 hours of rolling, etc., it may be a viable option.

Hammond

Phillo would make a very flaky Wellington. You might also consider store bought puff pastry.

Hi,

In one of the Julia Child and Company books, she has a quick puff pastry recipe and perhaps a Wellington recipe, as well. I remember more distinctly the puff pastry being present.

Regards,

bibi rose wrote:
So I may be misremembering, but it seems to me that a slice of tenderloin usually has some kind of char or crust on it that is also rather tasty. Do restaurants sear the meat or somehow cook it differently?

They may indeed be using a product called, of all things, Char Crust.
http://www.charcrust.com/

It's not a bad short-cut. I prefer the original and the garlic peppercorn. Ed likes the spicier ones. The only two I wouldn't buy again are the Hickory Molasses and the Ginger Teriyaki.

Available pretty generally. Cheaper at Caputo's produce on Harlem.

We do our tenderloin every christmas similar to DBigg's, though we use both dijon mustard and actual grated horseradish as a coating, after we sear it, which, again, is after we coat the entire thing in whatever spice mixture you see fit (we use things like paprika, cayenne, onion and garlic powder, salt and pepper, thyme, oregano). i think it's important to sear it first--to get a good crust on it, similar to how i do lamb shanks before braising.
on another note, for your next christmas, you might consider accompanying this beef with a type of bread pudding.
saute 3 or so cups of onions in butter and oil, add some mushrooms--preferably a little more exotic than button--and add some garlic. let cool, and add to a mixture of 5 eggs and some heavy cream and some cubed up bread. pour into glass dish, cover with grated parmesan (the real stuff) and bake at about 350 for about an hour or until browned on top.
i'm telling you--this may sound simple, but it's divine.
cheers.

I believe that a luxurious beef roast, whether it be tenderloin or prime rib, only requires the simple of preparation. For tenderloin, a rub of garlic salt, pepper, and cayenne is more than sufficient. Sear the meat on all sides, then roast for 45-50 minutes in a 350 degree oven. You'll have a nice crust and a really even medium rare interior every time. I do prefer to separate the tenderloin head and the fatty attachment and roast them separately for the beginning of a very fine roast beef hash. It also helps control the cooking time for the loin itself.

Mmm, hash. If people hadn't eat all the leftovers, that's what I would make.

Thanks for the fabulous ideas, everyone. And please don't hesitate to keep them coming! I only wish I had posted here before the tenderloin experiment rather than after, but there will be others. I am absolutely going to sear it another time and probably use a crust or a rub. I'm all about the spice rubs for other things. (I had seen Char Crust in stores and been curious about it because I love to sear tuna steaks with a crust.)

We sometimes do a salmon "Wellington" in ready-made dough. As it happens, we bought some frozen miniature beef Wellington appetizers from the butcher recently and were saying how good they were. They were quite expensive, though, and we really should try making them at home.

Personally, I would not recommend that a rookie try to do a Beef Wellington which is a recipe that can confound a lot of people with a lot of experience.

I like Will's approach.

A lot of people make an effort to remove the membrane from the beef tenderloin. To me that is a lot of work for little benefit.

By the way, the only way to destroy a beef tenderloin is to overcook it.

I'm with Will. It's probably laziness on my part, but the simple approach works well for me.

This year for Christmas dinner we had beef tenderloin. I just gave it a garlic rub, then salt & pepper, put it in the roasting pan and browned it in vegetable oil on the stove top. Into the oven at 350 and in less than an hour it was done.

I followed GWIV's suggestion to let it rest at least 15 minutes, then sliced.

Came out tender and flavorful. Even my wife, who is not a beef fancier, liked it a lot.

We bought the tenderloin at Al's Meat Market in Wilmette. They carry prime grade. Price for a trimmed tenderloin was $22.89/pound.

I'd do it again.

Page 7 of the search but I found a tenderloin discussion!

My husband doesn't like turkey, so I make a smallish beef tenderloin for him (that everyone enjoys a bit of) every year at thanksgiving. I've made several of the epicurious recipes, including Bootlegger's Beef (which tasted great but had an icky looking gravy), Mustard Sauce (too mustardy for the crowd) and one from a magazine ad for Dacor that I've lost for years.

Anyone recommend a wonderful gravy to go with a simple beef tenderloin? I just sear it and roast on convection while everyone's eating the squash soup...a pre-prepared one would be great. Thanks!

Amazing what some searches will turn up (I was looking for a seared tuna recipe).

Here's my tried and true - with a little help from Weber.

Rub with olive oil
Chopped rosemary - a fair amount (it really helps with the 'Christmas' flavor.
Chopped garlic - you know how much you like.
Salt & Pepper to taste

I have a rotisserie for my gas grill (oh, the horror). Cook indirect with the @ 250-275 until internal temp is 135.

Very simple - and the rosemary adds a great holiday taste.