Okay, so I was planning to cook a beef tenderloin tonight (~6lbs). I had it out of the fridge and had prepped it (silverskin cut off, tied up, oiled with herbs and spices). It sat out on the counter for about 20-25 minutes when we had an animal emergency that means I won’t be cooking it tonight. I’ve wrapped it in saran wrap tightly and put it back in the fridge.
My current plan is to go straight from fridge to grill with no counter-warming tomorrow evening.
So, my question is, will it be safe to cook & eat tomorrow night or am I out the $70+? Are there things I can do to improve my outcome - hotter grill, more towards medium-well, cut into steaks and discard the ends, etc? I can accept that it won’t be as good as it would have been, but I’d rather not lose the whole thing.
Heck, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seasoned my steak, left it on the counter, and then fell asleep on my recliner as I was waiting for the steak to warm up to room temp.
Those steaks stayed out all night and I wound up being fine.
The rule of thumb I have heard is don’t leave meat out for more than 4 hours before cooking. You should allow good meat to warm up before putting it in the oven. What I am careful about is leaving meat out for more than an hour or two then putting it back in the refrigerator overnight. Bacteria might have gotten a start while it was out and continued to slowly grow even at cold temps. But 20-30 mins, is not long enough to concern me.
The standard advice for Prime Rib (you know $100+ per clod, so take no chances) is to take it out of the fridge at least 3-4 hours before putting it in the oven. It can’t cook evenly enough if it’s chilled through. You need it roughly room temperature to slightly cool throughout.
One of the standard tactics for prime rib is to blast it at 425 or so for 20-ish minutes at first to murder any surface bacteria that may have settled on the meat. That also sets up the beginnings of a flavorful attractive brown crust. Then followed by reducing the heat to a slow temp for the long roast to complete doneness.
Other equally good tactics put the high temp browning phase at the end so the bacteria, if any, only get cooked off slowly as the meat slowly warms in the slow oven.
I think you’ll probably get a better result. Not from the sitting on the counter for a few minutes but from allowing the herbs and spices more time to get acquainted with the meat. If you had salt in the mixture, you’ll also get some dry brining going on to better diffuse the salt and create a juicier piece of meat. This will also allow you to back off on the salt on the outside of the roast. You may find that you’ll want to do it this way every time going forward.
@LSLGuy FWIW, I’ve tried both blast at the beginning and blast at the end, and end seems to work better. I get less gray area and more pink with end blast. I think the problem with beginning blast is that it takes a while for the oven to shed that high heat which starts the outside overcooking. Doing it at the end, you blast it for X minutes and then take it out so there’s no period of time when the oven is dropping from 425 to 180 with the roast in the oven. Although I’ve been known to throw the rib into a giant cast iron skillet before it goes into the oven and sear the heck out of all sides. Then blast at the end if it seems like it needs it or skip if it doesn’t.
Oddly enough, blast at the end seems to be the best way to make NY style cheesecake too.
Missed the edit window. Now that I re-read my answer, my prime rib suggestions probably aren’t so relevant to the tenderloin discussion. Since tenderloin is already really tender and can get mushy if cooked at low temps for too long, you probably don’t want to do low and slow and then blast at the end. Find a reasonable temp to grill / bake it at and then finish on high heat if you think it needs more sear at the end. You can let it sit out under loose foil while you get the grill / oven up to temp. Or start it in the skillet to get it browned on all sides and then bake it and give it an optional blast at the end.
I have 2 ovens, and start the second oven at the low temp when the roast whatsisbeast goes into the fully pre-heated high temp first oven. When it’s time to pull the beast after the starting blast, just move it directly to the other oven already settled at the low temp. Viola! Works great for turkeys too.
Absent 2 ovens, pull the beast out and leave it and its pan sit on the counter UNtented until the single oven settles at the new lower temp. Leaving the oven door open while it drops helps speed that along.
The third approach, which IME is hard to get the timing right, is to do as you say but run the initial blast for a much shorter time then turn down the oven while the beast stays in and rides the temperature slowly down. Again opening the door helps that go faster and be more predictable. But it’s still accident prone. The problem is that a 5 minute error here in the blast-and-cooldown phase changes the final roasting-is-completed time by 30ish minutes. Which makes timing the rest of the meal, especially veggies, real hard.
As to end blast for prime rib, I don't have much experience, but do have advice to that effect from pros I trust plus now you. Certainly lots of restaurant prep of thick steaks, chops etc., rely on the end-blast "finish in the oven" method.
Not so much for prime ribs, but for other beef and pork roasts I usually do the long slow roast method then pull for a short tented rest then pop them into a very hot broiler for 3-4 minutes max to crisp the top fat followed by another short tented rest then carve.
Next time I do a prime rib I’ll give your end-blast method a try. Thank you.
I agree, the third method isn’t so great and the first two are better. I was using an older Cook’s Illustrated recipe for guidance and it called for sear at high, leave roast in oven as it drops to low temp. To your point, too many variables.
Regarding timing, rib roasts are pretty serious pieces of meat from a heat retention perspective. If it comes up to desired temp too early, tent it for 60-90 minutes. Then serve when everything else is finished. Or, even better if you’re doing the end blast, you can put it back in at high temp to finish it just before you serve it so you still get that nice crispy brown outside sizzling from the oven.
Serious Eats has a good, simple sear at the end recipe. The article behind it is really good too. Anything by Kenji Lopez-Alt on that site is a recipe that will work and will produce better than expected results.
Actually, I’m cooking on a kamado-style grill, so my plan is to start on the physically higher side with indirect heat (~325/250) for about 30-35 minutes, then go to the lower side with direct heat right at the end to give the outside that good crisp. I find I get better browning searing at the end of the process.
My rub is olive oil, Montreal Steak Seasoning*, chopped parley and rosemary.
So yes, the meat got salted last night.
Grill is heating up and the loin in on the counter…
I’ve got a Kamado-style grill too. Even just using charcoal I get a nice mild smoke in whatever I try to cook there. There are some interesting smokers (tubes or mazes) that work really well in the ceramic grills. And there are temperature controllers that use a blower to give you a +/- 5 degrees constant temperature. If you can only have one grill, the ceramics are a good choice.
It sounds really good. Let us know how it turns out.