Published November 1, 2006.
For a stuffed beef tenderloin recipe with a deeply charred crust, a tender, rosy-pink interior, and an intensely flavored stuffing that stayed neatly rolled in the meat, we chose the almost perfectly cylindrical Châteaubriand and used a "double-butterfly" procedure—making two cuts so the roast opened up into three parts (like a business letter). In this way the roast accommodated 50 percent more filling than a conventionally butterflied roast. We created a suitable crust for our tenderloin recipe in a shortened cooking time by coating the exterior of the roast with a layer of kosher salt an hour before searing, which allowed the salt to begin to break down the protein fibers in the outermost layer of meat, so that it browned quickly.
The Chateaubriand is a cut taken from the center of the tenderloin. It should be an even thickness from end to end, without any portion of the butt end attached. The stuffing can be made a day in advance, but it must be microwaved to just room temperature before being stuffed into the roast. The roast can be stuffed, rolled, and tied the day before cooking. When carving the roast, the kitchen twine performs two duties. First, and more important, it keeps the roast intact while carving. Second, it provides a good guideline for carving the roast—simply cut the meat into thick slices between each piece of twine. If serving a crowd, this recipe can be doubled to make two roasts. Follow the recipe as directed, searing the roasts one after another, cleaning the pan and adding new oil after searing the first roast.
Dear Friend,
These days, it’s pretty easy to get free recipes on the Internet. I’m sure a search for “roast chicken recipe” will turn up thousands and thousands. But, as with so much on the web, you should tread lightly if you don’t know the source.
In America’s Test Kitchen, our motto is, “Recipes that Work,” and our mission is to be your trusted source for recipes that work every time you use them. Our test cooks spend their days obsessively testing recipes until they offer consistently great results. As we like to say here, “We make the mistakes so you don’t have to.”
CooksIllustrated.com is the only place you can find not only 20 years' worth of our foolproof recipes, but also objective ratings of cookware, and blind taste tests for hundreds of everyday supermarket ingredients (hey, without the proper ingredients and equipment you can still run into problems — no matter how good the recipe).
Let me make a simple, no-nonsense offer. Try out our website FREE for a 14-Day, No-Hassle Trial Offer. I’m pretty confident that CooksIllustrated.com will quickly become an invaluable resource for everything from quick, weeknight suppers to huge, holiday feasts for family and friends.
Thanks for your consideration,
Christopher Kimball
Founder and Publisher
