How To Cut A Beef Tenderloin

Have you ever cut whole beef tenderloin? It can be somewhat intimidating. It looks like an alien or something from some weird Sci-Fi movie when you pull it outside the package. However, butchering a whole beef tenderloin is not as hard as you may think. Knowing the correct way to break it down and cut it correctly can save you money because there is less work your butcher has to do, and that makes it cheaper!

David and I have cut, smoked, and reverse-seared several beef tenderloins in the past few months. Our local store has had some pretty amazing sales during this season of life we’re in.

Let us show you how easy it is to cut whole beef tenderloin down into some fantastic meat to cook at a fraction of the cost!

What is Beef Tenderloin?

Beef tenderloin is one of the most expensive cuts you can get from a cow. It’s also the most tender muscle because it is tucked away inside the hindquarter from a portion known as a short loin or the psoas major. This means it doesn’t get a lot of use, which makes it tender. 

Whole Tenderloin – Understand the Muscle

Before beginning, it’s important to know what you are looking at when the tenderloin comes out of the package. The photo below is of a whole beef tenderloin straight out of the package, clean and dry.

See, I told you untrimmed tenderloin is not attractive at all. Rather gnarly, ain’t it?

The photo diagram below shows a clean and cut whole beef tenderloin, with the silver skin removed. This will help you understand where the muscles come from. 

There are three sections to a beef tenderloin that you need to understand, they are: 

1. Muscle-On Roast – Tenderloin roasts are good meat! Do not discard it!
2. Tenderloin – Divided into three sections: the tail, the filet mignon, and the CheatauBriand. All exceptional meat with varying textures!
3. The Chain (side muscle) – is full of silverskin and thick fatty connective tissue. There are some good bits of meat within it to dissect out and save.

Use two bowls when cutting a tenderloin—one for the excess fat and silverskin and one for the good meat that you can use later. The good scrap meat is good for stir-fry, and fajitas, or you can grind it into delicious hamburgers.

We made burgers from the ground-up tenderloin meat. The hamburger patties melt in your mouth. We have some more scraps in the freezer, and I can’t wait to try them in fajitas or stir-fry, but it will be hard not to make another burger with them.

What You’ll Need To Cut Whole Beef Tenderloin

• Sturdy Cutting Board
• Extra-sharp Knife (a boning knife works best)
• Two bowls – one for saving scraps the other for throwing away waste

Remove The Package and Prepare For Cutting

It’s best to open the package in the kitchen sink to avoid messy spills from the “purge” (water and meat proteins that drain from meat). For the cleanest removal, hold the package as upright as possible. Make the slit large enough for the tenderloin to come out of the top of the cryovac package. Carefully pull the tenderloin out, allowing the purge to stay inside the bottom of the package. Discard the package with the purge left inside or drain the purge down the sink. 

Rinsing meat is a matter of preference and a somewhat controversial topic. We chose to rinse certain meats to get rid of the “purge,” which sometimes can get a little stagnant if the package is nearing the end of its shelf life.

Pat the meat dry with paper towels. This makes it safer to cut because wet meat can be rather slippery.

How To Cut A Beef Tenderloin

Step 1: Remove the Muscle-On Roast

Step 2: Remove The Chain

The tenderloin has a tapered end and a fatty butt end. Along the length of the tenderloin, there is a narrow strip of loosely attached meat and fat. This trip is called the “chain.” If you grab it with your hands, you will notice that it doesn’t take much to loosen it and pull away from the tenderloin. It only takes a few short strokes of the knife to detach it completely. 

You can salvage the meat from the chain by trimming away the fat and any connective tissue for other dishes we mentioned earlier. 

Now you have the main tenderloin to work with.

Step 3: Trim Off The Tail

Step 4: Excess Fat and Silverskin

The tenderloin is covered with a white sheen of connective tissue called “silver skin.” Silverskin is extremely tough and will not break down during the cooking process. It’s essential to remove all of the silver skin from the tenderloin so it will be as tender as possible. 

To remove the silverskin, carefully pull the sliver skin away from the meat while gliding the tip of your knife along the surface of the meat. This is why it is important to have a very sharp knife when cutting the tenderloin. 

When trimming off the silverskin, it’s also important to trim away any pockets of excess fat. A little is okay, but excessive amounts of melted fat can mask the flavor of the meat.

Step 5: Cut Or Tie The Narrow End (ChateauBriand)

To make the tenderloin more uniform for even cooking, you can either tuck it under and tie it up with butcher’s twine

OR

Cut off the narrow portion (also known as the “ChateauBriand”) and save it when you salvaged meat.

Tournedos

David and I tucked and tied up the first beef tenderloin we cut. It’s not hard to do, but it’s a lot more complicated than just cutting it off and grilling it. However, from this narrow end of the tenderloin comes “Tournedos” (meat cut).

Tournedos is an extremely tender cut of beef, very lean, and stupid very expensive if you were to order them in a French restaurant.

Grilled tournedos tenderloin steaks are phenomenal and you should try them at least once!

What To Do With Beef Tenderloin

Once you have the beef tenderloin, it can then make smoked beef tenderloin with a reverse-sear on the grill [LIKE THIS]

OR

you can slice it into 1 ½ to 2-inch medallions, filet mignon steaks, and grill them using this recipe from Weber.com

We hope showing you how to cut whole beef tenderloin will help you feed those special folks in your life and help you save money too!