Ina Garten-Inspired Beef Tenderloin

Compiled by Igor Kukolj, Editor. Nobody here has cooked this — how these are made.

A whole fillet is the most expensive roast most people buy and the easiest to serve half overcooked, because of its shape.

It tapers: thick and round at one end, narrowing to a thin tail at the other. Roasted as it comes, the tail reaches well done while the centre of the thick end is still cold. Fold the last fifteen centimetres back under the joint and tie it in place, and you have made a cylinder of roughly even diameter. Everything then cooks at the same rate, which is the entire problem solved with a metre of string.

Tie the rest of the joint at four-centimetre intervals too, firmly. It holds the shape and gives you neat rounds when you carve.

Pull it at 48°C

Carryover on a joint this size is real — the centre climbs 5 to 7°C after it leaves the oven. Take it out at 48°C and rest it to about 54°C for medium-rare. Roasting to 54°C and then resting gives you medium, on a cut where that costs real money.

Salt it a day ahead, sear it at the end

Twenty-four hours uncovered in the fridge with salt on it seasons the meat right through and dries the surface. Then roast it gently and sear it at the end, rather than the other way round: fillet is lean and a hard sear at the start cooks a grey band under the crust that a low oven never evens out.

Ask for it trimmed, or trim it yourself

There is a tough silver membrane running along one side that does not break down and turns tight and chewy in the oven. Slide a thin knife under it and pull it away in strips. A butcher will do it, but check — "trimmed" sometimes only means the fat.

Storing

Three days. Cold rare beef is excellent and reheating is not — a lean cut warmed through goes straight to grey. Slice it thin, cold, for sandwiches.