Here’s how I justified buying a whole beef tenderloin for almost $100.

It was King Daddy’s and my 23rd anniversary. Never mind that I’d just seen Ina Garten preparing a luscious roasted tenderloin on The Chew. And I wanted to jump through the screen to grab a piece. There is nothing King Daddy likes more than a nice hunk of beef. For 23 years, King Daddy has put up with my OCD. Have I checked that the door is locked at least 9 times before leaving the house? Have I asked King Daddy repeatedly if the coffee maker’s off as we drive 180 miles on our vacation? Even though he’s complained bitterly about this, do I still have multiple Styrofoam cups of Diet Coke in the car at all times, fearing I will run out?

I actually rationalized this purchase by deciding that if I bought a whole tenderloin and butchered it myself I would end up with the bargain basement price of $6.50 a serving. If you are an impatient person, you can just scroll down to the finished product and the recipe. If you want to see how easy it is to take apart a whole tenderloin, follow along (and thank you – I was tremendously excited about this).

Whole tenderloinHere’s the whole tenderloin. If you do this yourself, there will be a moment where you stand before it with your very sharp knife and worry that you’re about to ruin this thing. Don’t be afraid. Here we go.

Whole Tenderloin chain removedThe first thing you do is take the “chain” off. It’s a long piece of meat you can literally separate with your hands. Some people think you can make stew meat out of this part, but I am not enough of a surgeon to do that.

Whole tenderloin lobe cut into steaksThere is a lobe of meat on the thick end of the tenderloin. You can also start to separate that with your hands. It’s that obvious. Cut it off, trim the fat and cut it into steaks. You should get three with some meat left over that will make dandy tenderloin kabobs. There are two smaller lobes on the other side. You know what to do. Then trim off the narrow, thin end of the tenderloin.

Whole tenderloin, extra meat Look at all this extra meat! I freeze all of this in separate packages so that should my OCD get totally out of control I can appease King Daddy with some steak and eggs or grilled kabobs.

Whole tenderloin, pull off fatTake off the fat. Some of it you can literally pull off and some of it you’ll have to cut off with a knife. If you’re a purist you can render the fat, but I am not.

Wholel tenderloin, remove silver skinRemove the silver skin with a knife. It’s not edible and if you served a tenderloin at a dinner party with the silver skin still attached your guests would wonder what in the world you were thinking. If you turn the tenderloin over, you will notice some flaps of fat. Just pull those off.

Whole tenderloin, finished productAnd here’s the finished product. Ta-da! Start to finish, it takes about 20-30 minutes, depending on your fear level. So, now, without further ado, here is what you get after you use Ina Garten’s incredible recipe for Slow-Roasted Filet of Beef.

Beef tenderloinPerfectly medium rare throughout. King Daddy almost had a heart attack from the pure joy of it.

4 Comments

  1. Les Kerr
    April 17, 2013 at 1:42 pm

    Looks great – you just made me hungry. Again!

  2. Mark
    MarkReply
    April 17, 2013 at 8:40 pm

    Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.

  3. Julie
    JulieReply
    April 19, 2013 at 7:41 am

    That is beautiful. and inspiring. Where’d you buy the hunk of burning love? I mean beef?

    • Catherine Mayhew
      Catherine MayhewReply
      April 20, 2013 at 5:21 pm

      The meat came from Publix. It’s not displayed sometimes but they have it “in the back.”

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