Beef Tenderloin Two Ways
What do you do when you are in your local Lowes Foods and you find a $130 cut of grass fed beef tenderloin at 50% off? You buy that sucker, take it home and dry brine it!! Then you ask you dig through recipes, ask for advice and suggestions, and get to work. At least that is what yours truly did. I settled on steaks and Beef Wellington cooked a few days a part. Here is how that went.
I trimmed the silverskin from the tenderloin and cut it in half, the half that was smaller in diameter I placed in a vacuum sealable container, sprinkled it with kosher salt, sealed it up and put it in the fridge where it would spend the next 96 hours. We will come back to that.
The other half got the same treatment along with some rosemary and Pennsylvania Pepper however it went into a vacuum seal bag for 24 hours.
After the dry brine worked it magic it was time to do use take advantage of some modern conveniences, chiefly my Anova Precision Cooker, a sous vide machine, aka the hot tub time machine aka HTTM. The sealed bag went into the HTTM for 3 hours at 130F. When time was up I put the beef, still in the bag, in an ice bath, because strangely, my wife and daughter seemed to be taking a long time 'shopping'. No matter. A quick ice bath and then into the fridge to hold. When I received the text that they were on their way home I started the Kingsford and prepped the Weber. Thirty minutes later the ladies walked in, the grill was hot and I started to slice the tenderloin into steaks and give them a healthy dose of Oakridge BBQs Santa Maria Steak Rub. I made sure to save the drippings to make gravy with later in the week. Here is what they looked like before going on the grill.
I walked out the door saying, dinner will be served in six minutes. Please finish the salad", and headed out to the Weber. I use my GrillGrates with the flat side over the SlowNSear and the raised grill mark side on the indirect heat side of the Weber. This gives me a consistent sear across the meat, grill marks are pretty, but they aren't giving you as much flavor as you deserve. Trust me on this. Bam, I was back inside carrying a plate full of what would be the most tender steaks I have ever eaten. I have had $100 plates of ribeye and porterhouse and some of America's top steak houses. I killed them, this beef was top notch. Steak and salad no need for taters that night.
And fast forward to Saturday...Remember that other half of the tenderloin we left to dry brine so long? It is time to bring it out. Note the difference in color in the before and after pictures.
Now it was time to put a generous coat of fresh ground Pennsylvania Pepper, rosemary, and a sprinkle of Santa Maria Steak Rub on and vacuum seal this beast. It went into the HTTM at 130F for 3 hours as well. When it came out I added the drippings to those I reserved from the steaks earlier in the week, plucked the larger bits of rosemary off the beef, and gave the tenderloin a quick sear in olive oil in a pan. I pulled the steak out and immediately brushed it with a stone ground mustard that had a touch of horseradish in it. Next it was time to wrap the tenderloin with prosciutto, Gordon Ramsey's recipe called for Parma Ham but we did not find any so we sent in a sub. I laid the prosciutto down, ground some PA pepper over it and wrapped it tightly around the beef, sealing it. It went into the fridge to set. While the beef set I worked on the mushroom stuffing, 8 ounces of regular button mushrooms and 8 ounces of baby portobellos went into a food processor with salt, PA Pepper, turmeric, thyme, and celery seed. Then the mushroom mix went into a pan to get as much water out as possible. I set the mushroom mix aside to cool in a container raising one end so that any remaining water would drain to the end. It was time to pull out the puff pastry. As it turned out, I had just enough pastry to cover the beef (lesson learned). I laid out the pastry dough, spread the mushroom mixture on it evenly and wrapped it tightly around the tenderloin making sure to seal the ends tight. Then it went into the refrigerator to set until it was closer to dinner time. I took the drippings from searing, added the reserved drippings from the HTTM cooks, added water, worcestershire, salt and beef stock and whisked in some flour along with some red wine. I also had some leftover mushroom mix so I added that as well. Once those ingredients had married but not yet thickened, I put it all in a blender to smooth out the texture. I vacuumed sealed corn on the cob with tarragon and butter and set the HTTM to 184F. I turned the oven to 420F. When they both reached temperature the wellington received an egg yolk wash and generous dusting of sea salt and it went into the oven. The corn went into the HTTM. The corn came out 30 minutes later and went into a pan to be seared, caramelizing the sugars in the corn and making it the perfect bite. After the corn finished (five minutes) the wellington was ready and it was time to serve dinner at the table for a proper family meal.
Independence Day 2017
Today was not your typical backyard barbecue. We spent the day catching up on odds and ends, for me that included building this site. I guess that's what happens when a holiday falls midweek. But fear not for the grill was fired up! Six pounds of choice ribeye would lay across the well seasoned grates, a fate they had been preparing for while they dry brined the last 48 hours. A few hours of cherry wood smoke and 225F heat from Kingsford charcoal and it was time to sear the beast. After searing it was back to the indirect side of the Weber until that magic number showed on the thermometer. BAM! Perfection! By the way. No sides on my plate today...just protein.
Sunday Night Bachelor Night: Meat and Potatoes
The morning glories were showing out when I picked tomatoes, basil, and peppers this morning. Click it for a larger view.
The ladies are out of town for a couple of weeks, living us men at home to fend for ourselves. Easy enough. Meat and potatoes it is! I took a flank steak out of the freezer last night and put it into the refrigerator to defrost. This morning it went into an ice bath for a rapid defrost and then back into the fridge to lay in a bath of Oakridge BBQ Game Changer Brine. This was not a prime cut of meat and demanded a marinade. Oakridge is indeed a game changer. I use it every time I cook chicken breasts or pork...period...and most everything else too. Two hours of brining and it was time to come out of the fridge. I dusted it with rosemary, cherry wood smoked salt, and Pennsylvania pepper and vacuum sealed it. Into the Anova (sous vide aka the hot tub time machine aka the magic hot tub) it went for 4 hours at 125F. I grabbed some yukon gold potatoes and quartered them. They went into two vacuum bags with rosemary, oregano, kosher salt, Pennsylvania pepper, and a big chunk of Kerry's Gold salted butter (the best damn butter in the world!!). The taters joined the beef in the magic hot tub for three hours and then they went into the oven at 400F (it was too dang hot to light charcoal!!) Given that I woosed out on the Weber I grabbed a pan, through some Kerry's Gold in it along with some leftover board sauce and some banana peppers I picked this morning. Once the butter clarified, I pulled the beef from the tub. Turned up the pan and braised then seared the flank steak. When it was done the potatoes were too. Sliced up a 'mater I picked this morning, grabbed a paper plate and yelled, "Supper's ready!"
Beerlicious Baseball Burgers
This recipe is from Ted Reader - The King of Burgers
Add 1/4 cup beer and 1/4 cup + 1 tbs of your favorite burger seasoning (I used BBBR) to 2# of 80/20 burger
Mix it all up by hand. Make baseball size balls of meat, put them in the fridge for 60-90 minutes.
Now take a 1/4 cup beer and 1/2 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce and whisk together and then hold it in fridge.
I use a Weber kettle and SNS to set up two zone. You can go low and slow to start or hot and fast it all depends on your schedule. I went hot and fast tonight and so I used a combination of Kingsford Blue Bag (KBB) and Cowboy Lump. The lump burns hot and fast. Put the burgers on the indirect side and baste with the sauce. Come back when they are about 80F internally and baste other side. When they hit 115F baste and sear. After searing baste again and move them back to the indirect side and let them come up to 160. Baste again, add cheese and set over direct heat until the cheese molds around the ball. Pull off and serve immediately. Use big soft buns and wear an old short or bib. Another trick is to put the top side of the bun on the bottom because it will catch more juice than the bottom end.
Serve the burgers with all the normal stuff, lettuce, maters, onions, pickles but you will quickly find that they want stack well but it can be done.
Monday is Meatloaf and Taters Day
We decided on meatloaf for Monday over the weekend. Next time we are going to use Kathryn's Recipe (sorry it is a secret of the pitmaster club) adaptation of this ORIGINAL RECIPE.
But today we went with a simpler version that of course included bacon. You can view the cooking log HERE it includes the recipes.
Here's some pics:
Thursday: Last Meal Ribs and Center Cut Round Roast
Pictured above are the finished products. Of course you can click them for a larger view you meat perv, you didn't have to ask. Here is how we got there.
On Tuesday the meat was finished defrosting and I gave them both a nice dry brine of kosher salt, then wrapped them up nice and tight and they went into the fridge. For the pork ribs I followed this recipe Last Meal Ribs: The Best Barbecue Ribs Ever. For the beef roast I followed these guidelines Recipe: Secrets Of Cooking Beef Prime Rib Roast, Strip Loin Roast, Tenderloin, Chuck Roast, Round, Rump Roast, And Other Beef Roasts On The Grill. And This Method Works Indoors If It's Too Cold For You, Wimp.
This meal was cooked on my 22.5" Weber with a Slow N Sear. If you have a kettle grill I cannot recommend too strongly that you get one of these. The grill was "set" to 225 degrees and I added apple wood and a touch of hickory. The ribs were given a nice rub of Meathead's Memphis Dust. The beef was rubbed with MMD and BBBR (Big Bad Beef Rub).
The pork went on at 12:30 and cooked for about 6 hours. At the six hour mark it passed the bend test but I left them on as I was keeping the lid raised to sear the beef. Weber's original classic BBQ sauce was served on the side, I did not baste the ribs with it.
The beef went on at 3pm and came off at 4:30. It was a 134 internally and so it was placed in a 150 degree oven to hold. At 6 pm the beef went back on the direct heat side of the grill to be seared.
I recommend serving the beef with beef butter. Feel free to experiment with the herbs, I did as I was out of tarragon. I use a 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp basil, 1/2 teaspoon lemon thyme, and 1/2 tsp rosemary for a 1lb block of Kerry's Gold Butter.
Tuesday is Texas Brisket Day
Having experimented with the flat over the weekend, I was holding on to the point until today. I am now a full-fledged brisket fan. That point, mmmm mmmm good.
The Slow'NSear was set in accordance with the 225 degree directions and the meat went on the grill at 6:34 AM when the grate temperature hit 225. At noon we hit an internal temp of 154 and I employed the famed Texas Crutch. The point came off the grill at 4:15 when both an internal temperature of 203 and the Thermapen went into it like a hot knife through butter.
Want the recipe? Try this Recipe: Texas Beef Brisket.
