DD Support Board and Research Team

[janice shell]

Now this is interesting, from Kenji:

What can we do with the beef? After all, tenderloin is tenderloin, right? Well, that's pretty much true. Of all the cuts on the cow, the tenderloin is perhaps the one that is least affected by grading and the varying levels of marbling (intramuscular fat) that come with it.

See, with a rich cut like a ribeye or a flatiron steak, the flavor, juiciness, and tenderness are linked closely to its USDA grade. Prime beef will have more fat, be more tender, and (at least to most palates) be more tasty. Choice or Select meat, on the other hand, will be less juicy, tougher, and less flavorful.

A tenderloin, on the other hand, is a very lean cut no matter which steer it comes from. A tenderloin from a Prime-graded steer will not have significantly more fat than that from a Select-graded steer, thus the variance in quality in tenderloin is not that wide. That's OK. Tenderloin is emphatically not about fat and flavor. It's about tenderness. As one of the least utilized muscles on the steer, the tenderloin, or psoas major, remains small, underdeveloped, and tender throughout the steers life. This translates to a buttery tenderness on the plate.

Kenji's version is well worth reading, along with the comments. Evidently it's excellent, and the results people got suggest to me that this should be the recipe I'd use. (Though maybe, as some suggested, with goose liver pate rather than foie gras. Which of course would be better, but much more expensive.

The cooking instructions are also wildly different from Ramsey's. Much longer: 30-40 minutes. I guess one would have to experiment.

But Kenji really knocked himself out. Here's the recipe:

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-ultimate-beef-wellington-recipe