aging beef tenderloin

Have you aged (wet and dry) before?
If you dry age it, you will end up with a much thinner hunk of beef. And i wouldnt dry age it very long for that reason. Ribeyes are mug bigger and dry more slowly, but even they shrink, losing as much as 20 percent of their weight. The diameter ofthe already thin tenderloin will shrink

You would get more condensed beef flavor, but unless you have a lot of internal fat (sometimes you get lucky), you wont also get the flavor from condensed fat, which is a major reason for dry aging. You also don't have the protection a layer of exterior fat offers, which helps to meter the rate at which it dries. Fat slows drying down

If you have wet aged, you know the flavor/sweetness that can develop. I think it gets to be cloying after too long. I have aged too long myself. I would suggest not going for super-long.

I don't age tenderloins, but they can certainly be done. You just need to walk the tightrope. There's a common consensus that you "don't" age tenderloin, or even that you "can't". Bah. I have been guilty of saying it. But you can age it.

If i were going to do it, i'd WET age two, maybe, three weeks. I think wet aged beef can get too sweet. Then dry age a week to firm it, lose maybe 10% of the water and condense the flavor, and to give you a dry surface (great for roasting). Trimming would be a waste, especially with such a small cross section to begin with

To really beat this to death, i'd probably leave the chain on, but hack off the thin end, making tips and small fillets for 'now'. Then age that rest of it, chopping into thick steaks from the narrower end, and leaving a bigger roast at the other (again, bith with thechain on, to keep some diameter)

good to know... I've yet to age my beef... I did buy a dry aged ribeye at whole foods once and he trimmed off about 30% from what I bought!  I wish he'd of just given me the whole cut and charged me 30% less! :-)

Travis. A buddy of mine (fishless) and i discovered a shop near us (about five years ago maybe?) that sold 45-day aged beef for 19 bucks a pound. Now, i had once paid 75 bucks once for what must have been only 21 day porterhouse, from Julia Child's butcher. There was an old show where she mentioned it, and they are still there. Anyway, that guy took ten minutes to cut off and prep the beef, but he did not trim. He scraped any mold and tags(loose bits) off with some sort of scraper, but didnt trim. Not a bit.

The guys selling 45 day, which is decidedly more aged looking (read 'brown') than even 21- day, also gladly sold pretty, red, fresh beef for those who wanted a steak that looked like a magazine ad. But they took pride too in the brown logs in the end of the case for those who knew the real deal.

They NEVER trimmed. Ever. That surface (to me) is the primary reason to age. It can get over dry at 100 days, but it is simply the textureof a roast beef's crust, and softens when cooking

Bt even that store trims now. Why? Well, when you have yuppies dying to try the dry aged beef they hear do much about on emeriland rachel ray, pointing at your expensive beef deciding whetherthey want to take the plunge, you trim it if they are skittish. Customer is king. But not always right.

Back to the O.P..... I forgot that i had aged the tenderloin for this year's X-mas wellington. Two weeks. A little improved. Trnderloin hasnt much flavor to begin with, and wellington is about wrapping it in flavor anyway, so not much difference honestly. To be truthful, i would age a rib eye over a tenderloin 9 times out of ten.

i would do what stike said with the exception of wet aging in the cryo, then cutting off the small end and dry aging that piece for just a few days and dry aging the bigger end maybe 14 days. there is no fat to condense so i see no reason to go much longer. theres lots written on the small end but you have to google dry aged fillet mignon, i used to get those alot back in college and they were never dried for months, they were still a little wet, greenish grey

@stilllaughing: for me, the exterior is the best part, and i only get it when i dry age, and see it only on dry-aged beef.  so it virtually equates to the "dry-aged" part. if i were to trim, i would literally trim out the interior and toss it away.  sure, it's aged, and it's SLIGHTLY more dense.  but it isn't condensed and beefy and crisp like the exterior. the exterior even has an oxizied quality, and flirts with rancidity (only flirts). it's not for everybody.

but i do feel like it's worth being a snob about.  i don't like snobbery for snoberry's sake.  but there often IS truth in it.

don't get me wrong.  i have my 'beginner' issues too.  i like a nice knife, but i don't have showpiece stuff. i'm a beginner. i don't have the ability to tell what's what as the prices go up and things get esoteric. but i also don't say i'm a knife collector simply because i have a bunch of knives.  i know when i am only barely scratching the surface on something. a person is either in the game or not, and with regard to knives, i am not. 

i think if a person likes aged beef, but doesn't like the dried exterior, they really ought to simply investigate wet aging.  they'd not be wasting so much food, and throwing out the part they don't care for, which (if you like DRY aged) is often considered the best part.

takes a lot of experimenting.  i am about to throw out maybe 3 pounds of some beef that i basically farked up.  ah well.  but now i know.  even i have a limit.




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might still dry it a week.  won't shrink much, and it'll give you a great surface