T1B

I'm doing a beef tenderloin and some turkey for Christmas. Might as well do a PET of the process.










Sure you can get them already cleaned up, but that is considerably more expensive. I'm not the best at tying it up but close enough.

And into the fridge it goes until Christmas day. Then it will get a bath for a few hours, and then seared.

That's going to be tasty. I hope you will continue this PET.

I decided to go relatively simple this year. My son is vegetarian (actually he's now pescatarian) so I'm going with that theme. We will only have five, including Mrs. Mikey, our daughter, our son and his wife. I'm going to fix the minestrone that I posted a few weeks ago, plus a seafood saffron risotto dish that will include shrimp, scallops, little neck clams, mussels and some small crab claws that I picked up at Costco yesterday. Depends on what's available at the local grocery on Monday. Also might throw in some pieces of salmon. Plus a big salad. I can make the minestrone the day before (it's actually better a day old) so the main challenge will be the seafood risotto, which I haven't done before. I've done risotto many times but getting all the shellfish cooked correctly at the right time will be a challenge.

Daughter will be bringing a Buche de Noel for dessert.

Enjoy!!

Y'all are going to eat right. We'll do seafood on new year's.

And yes I'll continue the PET, but nothing happens until Christmas day. Then sous vide, sear, and serve.

In the bath. Outside because I need the inside space for other things.








The top is now covered to help control the temperature. Will soak for 3 hours or so.

The original plan was to be serving food as of a few minutes ago.

A house full of people, and most of them are sleeping hard now.

Ok, no problem. The tenderloin is cooked now, just needs to be seared. It has been in the water for 3.5 hours, I'm going to take it out but leave it in the vacuum sealed bag. Depending on how long the wait will be, I might put it back in for a bit. Or it may just go on the grill for a searing.

Just roll with it. Merry Christmas yall.

As it came out the bath, it was in the water for a bit more than 3.5 hours.





Ok, here it is after being dried off with a paper towel. It went into the refrigerator like this for 5 minutes, really to get it dry for the sear.




Things were happening fast at this point and I didn't get any pics of it on the grill. My grill has this side burner that gets really hot and so that's what I used, turning it often. But it didn't take long.

And after resting just a bit, here it is ready to be served. Daughter's boyfriend was the one who cut it, yeah he needs practice.




Lots of comments on how good it was, and you could tell that they were not just saying that to be nice, they meant it. Good eating tonight.

Nice job, Roux. I usually sear on a big iron plate I bought at a camping store using clarified butter. You can get good color and crust without losing much moisture. Never had the balls to do it on the grill. Always afraid it might stick and tear.

88BuckeyeGrad wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2024 1:15 am Nice job, Roux. I usually sear on a big iron plate I bought at a camping store using clarified butter. You can get good color and crust without losing much moisture. Never had the balls to do it on the grill. Always afraid it might stick and tear.

I got one of those that sits in my four burner Weber and takes up about half the real estate on the grill. I find that I’m using it more than the grates, especially for fish, veggies, shrooms and stuff you want to get a nice sear on without sticking or falling through. Perfect for crisping up a skin-on salmon fillet without making a fucking mess in the kitchen.

Last night the 8 of us went to Celebration in the Oaks, in City Park in NOLA, with all the Christmas lights and so on. Lots of photo opportunities there.

Anyway, on the way back to Baton Rouge, they all were talking about the tenderloin. About all the food really, but especially the tenderloin. And so when we got home, it was like locusts in the field, they went on a feeding frenzy. With a bunch of men you kinda expect that, but this was just two guys and 6 women, and it made my heart smile to see them attack the leftovers like that. Christmas dinner, they were using their manners. Last night, it was a feeding frenzy and they weren't concerned about anything but the food. Wish I had a video of it. Cooking a Christmas spread is quite a long process, and it was great to see them loving it.

It’s gratifying for sure to see people happily scarfing your creations, even if you know that they’re classless heathens who wouldn’t know good food from compost. You can only enjoy it so much yourself. And to be honest, at least in my case, I’ve often been fucking with it for so long and snacking on testing parts of it the whole time, I’m not that hungry when it’s time to eat anyway.

Mikey wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2024 3:44 am

88BuckeyeGrad wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2024 1:15 am Nice job, Roux. I usually sear on a big iron plate I bought at a camping store using clarified butter. You can get good color and crust without losing much moisture. Never had the balls to do it on the grill. Always afraid it might stick and tear.

I got one of those that sits in my four burner Weber and takes up about half the real estate on the grill. I find that I’m using it more than the grates, especially for fish, veggies, shrooms and stuff you want to get a nice sear on without sticking or falling through. Perfect for crisping up a skin-on salmon fillet without making a fucking mess in the kitchen.

I use it a lot too. We have a great butcher shop here that has good Wagyu beef, Duroc pork and Australian lamb. The beef will catch fire on the grill. And I hate spraying it with water all the time to put out the flames. Iron plate to the rescue. Pork can go on the grill. But I have more time and control on the iron plate. The lamb gets lollipopped and cooked in the plate with rosemary and garlic. Always killer. I have a basket for veggies, but use the plate almost as much.

Mikey wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2024 3:44 am

88BuckeyeGrad wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2024 1:15 am Nice job, Roux. I usually sear on a big iron plate I bought at a camping store using clarified butter. You can get good color and crust without losing much moisture. Never had the balls to do it on the grill. Always afraid it might stick and tear.

I got one of those that sits in my four burner Weber and takes up about half the real estate on the grill. I find that I’m using it more than the grates, especially for fish, veggies, shrooms and stuff you want to get a nice sear on without sticking or falling through. Perfect for crisping up a skin-on salmon fillet without making a fucking mess in the kitchen.

I use it a lot too. We have a great butcher shop here that has good Wagyu beef, Duroc pork and Australian lamb. The beef will catch fire on the grill. And I hate spraying it with water all the time to put out the flames. Iron plate to the rescue. Pork can go on the grill. But I have more time and control on the iron plate. The lamb gets lollipopped and cooked on the plate with fresh rosemary and garlic. Always killer. I have a basket for veggies, but use the plate almost as much.

Mikey wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2024 3:44 am Perfect for crisping up a skin-on salmon fillet without making a fucking mess in the kitchen.

Certainly nothing wrong with doing salmon on the grill, but what mess in the kitchen are you talking about? A skillet? How is that any different than cleaning the flat top you put on the grill?