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Reverse-Sear Beef Tenderloin (with horseradish sauce)

BeefRoastSpecial occasion

Dry-brine it overnight, roast it low until it's nearly done, then sear it hard and baste it with butter. It's hard to overcook this way.

From Cooking with Chris (@coookwithchris). The nutrition numbers and the notes are mine.

At a glance

Use a thermometer
12–24 hDry brine
45–90 minRoast at 275 °F
~3 minSear + baste
6Servings (3 lb)
–kcal / serving
–Protein
–Iron
–B12

Pull temperatures

  • Rare: 110–115 °F
  • Medium-rare: 118–125 °F
  • Medium: 128–132 °F
  • It rises another 10 °F or so during the rest and sear
method ↓

Good to know

  • The brief sear keeps grilling carcinogens low
  • Sear in tallow or ghee rather than seed oil
  • Make the sauce with avocado oil mayo
notes ↓

Ingredients

Tenderloin

Horseradish sauce

Stir everything together, then adjust the salt and vinegar to taste.

Method

  1. Dry brine, 12–24 hours (optional but worth it). Pat the tenderloin dry, salt it generously all over and leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge. Don't rinse the salt off.
  2. Temper. Let it sit at room temperature for 45–60 minutes before cooking.
  3. Roast low. Roast on a rack at 275 °F until it reaches the pull temperature for the doneness you want. A 2 lb roast takes about 45–70 minutes and a 3–4 lb roast about 60–90. Go by a leave-in thermometer, not the clock. Rest 10 minutes.
  4. Sear. Get a cast-iron skillet ripping hot with ghee or tallow. Sear 60–90 seconds per side.
  5. Baste. Add the butter, garlic and rosemary and spoon the foaming butter over the meat for 30–60 seconds.
  6. Rest and slice. Rest 10–15 minutes, then slice and serve with the horseradish sauce.

Nutrition per serving

This is calculated from the same USDA data as Build a Day. A 3 lb roast is counted as about 38 oz cooked.

Serving
Horseradish sauce

% of the daily target for men (the same targets as Build a Day). ~ = mostly estimated. Half the searing fat, basting butter and garlic is assumed to stay in the pan. The dry-brine salt is about 1 tsp of kosher salt per pound, all of it counted. The sauce uses an estimated avocado oil mayo.

Nutrition notes

The thread makes no health claims, but the method has two worth knowing.

A short sear means fewer HCAs

Heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which cause cancer in animals, form on the surface of meat cooked at high temperature, and they rise steeply with time and doneness. In a measurement study of meat and fish cooked by common methods, PhIP and MeIQx levels sharply increased in very well-done meat.[1] Lawrence Livermore found over 300 ng/g in well-done flame-grilled chicken, against under 1 ng/g in some fast food.[2]

A reverse sear minimizes both drivers. The inside cooks at 275 °F, where HCA formation is low. The high-heat crust takes about 3 minutes in total, and the meat comes off medium-rare. No study has compared reverse sear with grilling directly, but the method avoids the conditions that make HCAs. Tenderloin is also lean, which helps: there's little fat dripping and flaring. (Moderate for HCA formation. Inferred for the reverse-sear comparison.)

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Tallow, ghee and butter for the sear

Chris sears in ghee or tallow and bastes with butter. All three are about 2–3% linoleic acid by weight, against about 50% for soybean oil and 20% for canola. Ghee and tallow also handle a ripping-hot pan well. Tenderloin itself is low in omega-6, so the whole plate stays well inside the Linoleic Acid paper's range. The one seed-oil risk is the sauce. Regular mayo is soybean oil, which is why the recipe calls for avocado oil mayo (see the sauces page). (Strong: USDA composition data)

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References

  1. Iwasaki M, Kataoka H, Ishihara J, et al. Heterocyclic amines content of meat and fish cooked by Brazilian methods. J Food Compost Anal 2010;23(1):61–69. PMID 20383312
  2. Knize MG, Salmon CP, Mehta SS, Felton JS. Analysis of cooked muscle meats for heterocyclic aromatic amine carcinogens. Mutat Res 1997;376(1–2):129–134. PMID 9202748