OH MY GOSH... I just ate the best beef I've ever eaten. Last week when I went shopping at Central Market, I picked up a 2 pound cut of aged choice filet. It aged a bit more in the back of my fridge and I fixed it tonight... it was really good. REALLY good. I've eaten at Ruth's Chris, Taste of Texas, Saltgrass, etc., and I'd put this up against anything I've eaten at any of those places. No contest. Here's what I did:
Ingredients:
- 1 2lb aged choice filet
- a tiny bit (maybe 1 Tbsp) safflower (preferred) or canola oil
- kosher salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- dried herbs, such as herbs de provence
Procedure (for medium-rare beef... tweak as desired):
- take the beef out an hour before you plan to roast it and let it sit
- 15 minutes before roasting, lightly rub the beef with a little oil... just enough to glisten
- right after rubbing with oil, coat the beef in a mixture of kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, and herbs (optional). Herbs de provence worked well for me. Use lots, especially salt and pepper. Don't skimp.
- place the roast on a rack in a roasting pan, preferably a good, large pan that will radiate well. I have a Mauviel (sp?) large pan which pretty much fills my oven (in terms of length and width).
- roast at 300 degrees until a meat thermometer (that you trust!) reads 120 degrees in the coolest part of the meat (I won't say the thickest because the thickest part might be on one end, and that generally won't be the coolest part). In any case, use your meat thermometer correctly!
- take the roast out, cover with foil
- crank the oven as high as it will go. Mine goes to 550 degrees. When the oven reaches said temperature, give it 5 minutes or so, and then put the roast back in.
- cook for 10 or more minutes until the crust is how you want it. Mine lasted about 13 minutes before I could stand it no longer.
- take the roast out and set it on whatever you'll carve it on, let it sit.
- do whatever else you were planning to do, letting the roast sit at least 10 minutes.
- cut into 1/2"-ish slices.
- EAT!
There may be several key steps here, but the quality of the meat is definitely one of them. Of course, there's nothing new under the sun... this procedure is an amalgum of ideas from Alton Brown (Food Network, I highly recommend his books) and others, and a couple twists of my own.
I thought I'd make a little sauce to go with it, but you just don't need it... it would be anticlimactic for sure.







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