Cooking a beef tenderloin

Cafe Society
1

I have been cooking whole pork tenderloins by browning them in oil and garlic, then seasoning them with salt and roasting them until the internal temp is 165.

Emboldened by this, I told my husband to pick up a beef tenderloin at CostCo. Holy crap, it is huge. I think it is the size that is weirding me out. Can I cook it the same way I cooked the pork ones? My husband is a picky eater, so I can’t stuff it with cheese or do anything too schmanzy with it.

Also, the label says “beef loin top loin whole (New York).” What does that mean? Could we just cut it up into NY strip steaks?

2

That’s not a tenderloin. Tenderloin will be labeled as “whole tenderloin” or maybe “filet mignon.”

What you have is a piece of the loin that’s usually cut into New York Strip or T-Bone steaks. It’s right next to the tenderloin on the cow, but it’s not tenderloin in and of itself.

You can roast it similar to your pork tenderloins, but it won’t be as tender. It’ll take longer, too - for a 5 pound loin, figure almost an hour to bring it to medium rare, longer if you like it more done.

And yes, you could just cut it into steaks. I think that’s what I’d do. It’s not a great cut for roasts in my opinion.

3

I think it makes a nice roast. As the previous poster said, it is not a tenderloin. Beef tenderloin is too soft and does not have as good a beefy flavor as ribeye or loin strip. Cover the sucker with pepper, salt, and rosemary. Start if off in a pre-heated oven at 425 and turn down to 350 after a few minutes. Cook until done :slight_smile:

An internal temp of 130 degrees is medium rare. It’ll feed a crowd. Cutting it into steaks will works as well.

4

It is big, so I might do both–cut some into steaks and cook some as a roast. If I do roast it, should I brown it first?

5

Sort of. You don’t really need to brown it first, but rubbing it down with oil, salt, pepper, etc is a good idea.
Put it in a 325° oven until it gets to about 110°-115° for rare or 120°-125° for medium.
BTW 165°’s a little high for pork IMHO with the carry-over cooking that’s 175°. I pull pork out at 145°-150° and let it rest, loosely covered with foil, for at least 30 minutes.

Anything past medium pretty much guaranties a dried out piece o’ roast beast.
Let it rest for at least 20 minutes or you’ll get a dried out piece o’ roast beast.

Everything ya need to know is here, Mr. Brown roasts a fine beast!

The problem is there’s about a dozen names for every cut and minor changes get different names. Is that a T-bone or a porter house, a filet (with or without the Mignon) or Chateaubriand?

Yeah for me what ya got there is steaks waiting to be born! First thing to do is trim it up.

Remove any excess fat, now that doesn’t mean every little bit of fat, leave a good ½ inch. Remember there’s a trade off between tender and tasty, the tasty cuts have lots of connective tissue and fat, the tender ones not so much, but for all beef fat = flavor!

Next you need to trim off any silverskin, that link will walk you through it if you haven’t done it before. But it lies, “(silverskin) it can be a little tough and will shrink awkwardly when the meat is cooked” a little tough, think rubber bands, shrink awkwardly, twisted up pretzel steaks.

Cut 'em thick, at least an inch thick 2 is better, that will let you really brown the outsides without over-cooking them.

I think the only way to cook 'em is in a cast iron skillet or grill pan. Get it HOT, the test for this is to drop a little water in the pan, it should dance, if it doesn’t the pan ain’t HOT!

A little bit of oil and salt on the steaks, no pepper it’ll burn, and into the pan (good idea to turn your exhaust hood on and your smoke detectors off!).
Same temps for doneness and rest time as the roast, but it’s easier to just take a slice off one and actually look inside.

CMC fnord!
Damn, now I’m hungry!

6

Here’s what Lobel’s reccomends for your shell roast. That’s a pretty sage recipe from a quality butcher, I like its simplicity. Otherwise, I’d just make 2 inch thick NY Strips, and have a few grillouts this Summer.

7

I’m sorry, and I don’t mean to hijack (my interruptions are organic rather than plotted.), but Lobel’s features something I’ve never heard of… Kurobuta Pork. They are touting it as the Kobe of Pork, similarly imported from Japan, but of Berkshire breed. Has anyone here ever tried Kurobuta Pork? Is it as delicious as it sounds, or am I being pulled in by a cynical marketing ploy?

8

In the beef loin there is a T shaped bone. At one end of this bone there is a fair amount of meat on each side, when cut into steaks this is called a porterhouse steak If you go to the other end of the T shaped bone, the meat on one side of the bone gets smaller and they call this a T-bone steak.
If you cut the large side of the meat off of the bone, you have a beef loin top / Beef loin strip / New York strip. cut into steaks you have what is called a strip steak, New York, or a New York strip.
If you cut the smaller piece of meat off of the t shaped bone you then have a beef tenderloin / fillet mignon roast.
So when looking at a porterhouse steak the large side is the New York, the small side is the Fillet.

You got meat from the wrong side of the bone. :slight_smile:
Personally I would not try to cook it like a roast. Makes for some great steaks, cut it thick and enjoy.

9

Maybe I should rephrase, this is what they reccomend for their shell roast. Probably the best meat in New York city… I’d go by marbling. Is your shell roast well marbled? If it is lean your roast might do better with amoist cooking method… maybe inject it.