[Skipper]

Hello and Help!!!
I am a cook at home and have been given a huge assignment. I have in my refrigerator 13 whole beef tenderloins that I must cook for a church group for tomorrow. I have one oven but it can turn into a convection oven if needed. My question is: should I use the convection oven and can I cook 4 at a time? or perhaps I should ask: How is the best way to complete this assignment? I am the only person available so I can not ask others to help, I've tried. I have looked up recipes that say to use the convection for baking rather than roasting as it makes meat rubbery. With this much meat, I don't want to fail and would love some input. Thank you.

[kuan]

Do you have to serve them all at once?

Convection cooking does not make the meat rubbery. First of all, very important, is you need to go out and buy an instant read thermometer.

What I would do is this. Season the tenderloins with salt and pepper, then brown them in a 500F oven. Remove and refrigerate. Do it for all 13.

When it comes time to serve, put them in the oven four at time at 425F and use your instant read thermometer to make sure they get up to 125F. Remove and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Transfer to cutting board and carve slices.

[KYHeirloomer]

Question: When you say "whole tenderloins" do you actually mean just the loin portion? Or are they in cryovac bags?

If the latter, you're going to have to break them down, first, as there is a chain and a fat cap, as well as the loin iteself. And there's part of the loin, what I call the tail (although I'm sure it has a real name), that should also be trimmed off, because it's a different texture than the main piece, and should be cooked differently.

Not a hard job, by any means, but time consuming when you have 13 of them to do.

Once they're broken down, follow Kuan's instructions and you should be ok.

As for the chains: at your leisure, trim them down, salvaging as much meat as possible. Use that to make things like Philly cheesesteak and the like; or even sliced thin for breakfast steaks.

[Skipper]

Thanks Kuan for the suggestions!!!! I will go out and buy an instant read thermometer. When you talk about a 500 degree and a 450 degree oven, do you mean a convection oven or a regular oven? Also, to brown the tenderloins, how long do I cook them and do I turn them over? I do not have to serve these, someone else will but I do have to slice them. Thank you again.

[kuan]

These are whole right? You can tell when they are browned right? Not black, browned. That's really all I can say without giving you a picture. 500F convection or standard, doesn't matter. It will be browned when it's browned, done when it's done.

Next time, give yourself a little time and learn how to trim these lovely pieces of meat.

[Skipper]

I have just opened one and it is cut in half so there are two pieces that weight about 3 pounds each. They were bought at Costco so I think they are trimmed. Does that make any difference? (I apologize for the basic questions but the responsibility of cooking these expensive cuts of meat and the quantity of it is loading me down). I do thank you all for being so patient with me.

[kuan]

Beef tenderloins are not cut in half. I think you have a pork loins.

Is it like this



or

[Skipper]

It looks like the second cut of meat. On the label it says "Beef Loin Tenderloin Butt Filet Mignon". The package has two pieces of meat in it, each about 3 pounds put together to measure about 15 inches long about 4 1/2 inches wide and 2" thick.

[Montelago]

Are they nice and clean and red or do they look like they have a bunch of white, fatty, stringy mess on them? Also, are the pieces identical, or is one fat, with a hammerhead shark appearance and the other thinner and tapering?

[Skipper]

The pieces are pretty much the same size, they do not tapper like a hammerhead shark. They do not have stringy mess on them but they do have fat, more on the top than the bottom. It looks like the butcher cut the tappered end off and these are the thicker, butt end. I'm a little surprised at the amount of fat.

[Montelago]

It sounds like they are partially cleaned. The fat pulls off easily with the fingers. Is there what looks like a separate piece of meat running down one side? if so, that needs to be removed. You can simply pull it off from the more tapered end up toward the head, and then cut off the very last of it. Also look for a patch of tough white membrane laying on top of the meat. This is called the silverskin and must be removed. It is extremely tough. Slide a boning or paring knife just barely underneath it in the middle and run the knife to one side. Then grab hold of the loose end and slide the knife back under and go the other way. Repeat until it is all gone. Pick off the excess fat and now you have a piece of meat ready to cook.

Kosher salt and black pepper. I would not brown them in the oven, but I realize you may be working with limited equipment. The best thing to do is sear them in a hot pan, like a large saute pan, griddle or heavy bottom roasting pan on the stovetop. Get a pan screaming hot, add some olive oil and lay the meat in there. Turn it after the meat gets a good brown sear on it until it is completely seared on all sides. You can either cool them down as said before, or roast them immediately. Depending on how you like your meat cooked, 125 deg. is a little too much for my taste. This will yield a medium temp at best. I would pull mine at about 110-115 deg for a nice medium rare. Like Kuan said, LET THE MEAT REST FOR A GOOD TEN MINUTES BEFORE YOU DARE TO TAKE A KNIFE TO IT. Otherwise the meat will bleed all of it's lovely juices onto the cutting board and give you dry meat. Comparitively speaking, roasting tenderloins is pretty easy, even for a beginner. Just use the probe and use it properly. Make sure that the end of the probe is in the middle of the muscle, then lightly push it in and then retract it. The lowest temp you get is the one you follow.

Good luck and let us know if you have any more questions.

[Skipper]

What a great help you have all been. I feel a little more confident in preparing this mass amount of meat. I will go to bed and sleep instead of thinking about it all night. I now have a good feel of what to do tomorrow. Again, thank you for your patience and advice to a novice cook.

[kuan]

OK Skipper, good luck, glad we could help so quickly.

Looks like what you have are called butt tenders. They have a little bit more sliver skin but they are still very tender. If you can, try and trim them a bit.

You can also cook some to medium, some to medium rare if you want.

[MikeLM]

What a nice bunch of people here. That's why I like hanging out here so much.

Mike

[Skipper]

I had to thank you once again for your detailed, patient, thorough, explanations of a culinary problem of which I had no experience. I had to let you know that the meat turned out delicious. I did find some other people to help me cook it. It was simple, fast and well received. The thanks go to you!!