Grilled Beef Tenderloin

Okay, I'm not sure what the deal is with me and tenderloins for the last couple of weeks, but they so flippin' awesome! With Katie out of town this week, I got to do the grocery shopping by myself. This is good for two reasons: 1) I don't have to weigh my wallet down with a bunch of silly things... like vegetables (just kidding, I bought some fruit, salad stuff and asparagus to go along with the veggies we already had); and 2) I can get some meat that we don't usually get. This week was a beef tenderloin and a duck (yet to be made).

Now, in case you didn't know, beef tenderloin is where filet mignon comes from. I know, I know, we all thought it descended down from heaven overnight, but that was manna. Translation: it is an extremely tender and flavorful piece of meat. I decided that I would cook this in a way similar to the grilled pork tenderloin from last week - on the grill.

One thing I learn in preparing this beef tenderloin is that there are a lot of knife skills that would come in handy, which I don't have. I sliced it up pretty good trying to trim some of the excess fat and the silver skin, and then I cut it in half because I don't need to eat all five pounds of this thing at once. After the trimming and separating, there was probably about four pounds left. Two and a half of that got tied together and put in the freezer for later consumption, which left me with about a pound and a half to play with.

Last week I watched an episode of Good Eats that talked about making a dry rub mix. Here is the thing to remember (according to Alton Brown): 8+3+1+1. 8 parts brown sugar, 3 parts kosher salt, 1 part chili powder and 1 part whatever else you want. I used 1/4 cup as my primary measurement, so it amounted to:

Matt's Dry Rub Mix

2 cups of brown sugar

3/4 cup of kosher salt

1/4 cup of chili powder

1/4 cup of mixture of cumin, cinnamon, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper (and possibly a couple of other things that I can't remember right now)

Mix it all together and store it in a container.

I took the pound and a half of tenderloin and liberally spread the dry rub on both sides, and let it sit for about 15 minutes. I went to the grill, brushed it with a little EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), and cranked it to high. After a few minutes, I turned the grill to low and put the tenderloin on. I let it cook for about 7 minutes on one side and 8 on the other, then pulled it off.

The tricky thing about this particular cut was that one end was very narrow and not very thick, while the other end was wide and about an inch and a half thick. This basically meant that one end of the tenderloin was at a nice medium well, while the other end was in the medium rare range (rare at the very center). However, it was amazing! I only ate about a third of it the first night, but finished it for lunch the next day (count it - that's a pound and a half of beef in 18 hours; delicious, tender, tasty beef). I paired it with some green beans and a nice, cold Mountain Dew. Simply awesome. I'll let you know how the duck turns out later on in the week.

Here it is in the pan after adding the dry rub mix and letting it sit for 15 minutes or so. Looks kinda like salmon, doesn't it?

Here is the glorious piece of meat on the grill. After doing it once, I would suggest 9 minutes to a side on medium heat.

And the finished product. Paired with some canned green beans given to us by our friends in Noblesville.

Simply incredible...