Herb and Pepper Crusted Beef Tenderloin with Creamy Horseradish Sauce
The beef tenderloin is a magical piece of meat and the most tender cut of beef there is. When cooked whole and then sliced it is wildly popular at dinner parties, weddings, etc. and when the tenderloin is cut into thick slices prior to cooking, it transforms into the infamous Filet Mignon touted by many as the “King of Steaks”. We are hosting a dinner party so we will leave it whole... let’s get this party started, right!
Herb and Pepper Crusted Beef Tenderloin with Creamy Horseradish Sauce
Prep time: 30 min | Cook time: 25-30 min | Total Time: 60 min | Servings: 12
Ingredients
Creamy Horseradish Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup prepared horseradish (you can also use fresh; whether store bought or fresh the amount can be adjusted to your liking)
1 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste (start with 1/2 tsp salt & 1/4 tsp pepper)
Optional: a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce or Tabasco
The Rest of the Ingredients
Trimmed beef tenderloin (we are using a 5-6 lb but this recipe can be used for any size)
2 Tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
2 Tbsp fresh chopped sage
2 Tbsp fresh chopped thyme
2 Tbsp coarse ground salt
2 Tbsp whole peppercorns, roughly crushed with a mallet
1/2 cup olive oil
1 stick of butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
Equipment
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Mixing bowl for sauce
Meat mallet (for peppercorns)
Ziploc bag (for peppercorns)
Aluminum foil
Directions
Make the Creamy Horseradish Sauce
1. I’m listing this advice as the first instruction to ensure you will read it: this sauce should be served chilled and gets better with time. If you can make it the night before it will give the flavors more time to meld, if you make it the day of try to give it 4 hours in the fridge before serving. If you can’t do either you are not at a loss, it’s still good.
2. Here’s where it gets difficult... place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until blended. Can you handle it?
3. Adjust flavors to your liking. We like the lemon flavor to shine through and sometimes add a bit more. I personally like a little more pepper kick and add more when Beth’s not looking.
4. Cover with a lid. Slap in fridge for 4+ hours. Done.
Prepare and Roast the Tenderloin
1. Make sure the tenderloin is out of the fridge for at least 1 hour, up to 2 hours, before cooking to ensure it’s at room temperature when it goes in. Don’t be scared, it’s about to roast at 475°F.
2. Trim your tenderloin. Even if you asked your butcher to trim the tenderloin, they probably didn’t spend the time it truly needs. If the entire membrane is still on (white fatty casing of the meat), try to pull as much of that off by hand. This can be done in conjunction with removing the “chain” once the chain is visible. The chain is a narrow strip of meat loosely attached to the main piece of meat. It may look great, and it is for stew, stir-fry’s, etc. but it’s not a part of the tenderloin you are serving – remove it and save it for another recipe. Now start to trim off all connective tissue, visible fat and silver skin. I do an alright job of showing you how to do this in our video and there are also ample instructions on the internet. At the end of the day, you want to see red muscle and as little white fat as possible before tying it up.
3. Tie your tenderloin with cooking twine. The purpose of this is to have a consistent circumference or girth, end to end, so it roasts evenly. Fold the narrow tail of the tenderloin back under itself and try to mold the fat end with the larger lobe of meat to match the width of the folded end. You can now start tying individual twine pieces every few inches or employ some fancier methods using one long string, I’m still trying to master this technique.
4. Prepare your rub. If you haven’t crushed your peppercorns at this point, put them in a thick Ziploc bag, get out your wood cutting board and mallet, and now hammer away until you have a bunch of cracked peppercorns in the bag. We aren’t looking to make ground pepper here; you want it chunky. Now put all the chopped herbs, salt and cracked peppercorns in a mixing bowl with the olive oil. Stir it around with a fork until you have a paste consistency.
5. Preheat your oven to 475°F massage your meat with the rub. Place your trimmed and tied tenderloin on the rack that sits in the baking pan and start to coat the entire outside with your rub. Massage it into all areas of the meat, push some down into the tied areas, etc. You want it fully coated and ready to roast.
6. Insert your meat thermometer into the end of the tenderloin and put the roast in the oven at 475°F. When the tenderloin gets to 120°F it will be rare after it rests, we prefer medium-rare and pull it from the oven at 125°F. This is where multi-probed digital thermometers shine. We like to stick one in each end of the tenderloin and when the slowest cooking end gets to 125°F we remove the tenderloin (i.e. fastest cooking end may be at 130°F, we still wait until slowest cooking end hits 125°F to take it out of the oven).
7. While the roast is cooking, put a stick of butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and as it starts to melt add your peeled and crushed garlic cloves. Stir this continuously until the butter is bubbling and begins to brown. This is going to infuse garlic flavor into the browned butter. Discard the garlic and be ready to pour this browned, infused with garlic butter over the tenderloin when we take it out of the oven.
8. Once the tenderloin hits your desired temperature, remove it from the oven, pour the butter over the roast and put it on the counter lightly covered with aluminum foil. We are going to let the tenderloin rest for 10 minutes prior to carving.
9. It’s had its nap, now carve it up. Place the tenderloin on a cutting board and cut it to your desired thickness, we typically go with 3/4” slices. Serve it to your guests with the creamy horseradish sauce and wait for the applause!
