Beef Tenderloin With Henry Bain Sauce

Beef Tenderloin is the most tender but also the least flavorful part of the cow.  Chop up a bunch of rosemary, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit for a couple of days in the frog.  You will be surprised at how the beef absorbs the rosemary flavor. 

Even at 500 degrees its not in the oven long enough to get that browned beef flavor.  Some people stick it into the freezer for a few minutes and then into a blistering hot pan for a a few seconds per side.  You also want to make a mixture of soy sauce (adds that umami flavor of aged beef instead of salt and adds color)  lots of cracked pepper, and oil.  Coat the meat before browning.  Keep it hot and short.  You don't want to cook the meat.  Then into your 500 degree oven.  And 145 internal temp is too high.  If you like it medium rare, go to 120.  Loosely tent it when it comes out and let rest for 15 minutes.  The internal will climb to 145.

As for the Henry Bains sauce.  This sauce was developed to go with the wild game that would be brought in by the members of the club.  It's perfect with wild boar, venison, elk, etc.  Much too overpowering for delicate Beef Tenderloin.  But there is a reason to use it.  Roasting a Beef Tenderloin does not produce drippings to make a gravy.  Here is what you can do with Henry Bains:

Buy a bunch of beef bones with some meat on them.   Beef ribs work well.   Coat with minced garlic, lots of pepper, and some salt and oil.  Broil, turning once or twice, till you get them nice and brown with crispy bits.  A BBQ grill works great too.  Then into a slow cooker with a half a bottle of red wine, some bay leaves, and that rosemary you used to marinate the beef.  Add water or broth till the bones and meat are covered.  Cook on low for 10 hours. (overnight)  Strain, bring to a boil, strain again and let it sit till it comes to room temp.  Don't shake it, let the fat come to the top.  Then refrigerate overnight.  The next day the fat will be hard and you can lift it off. (Save the fat for another use, such as Yorkshire Pudding ! ) Put the beef broth in a pot and boil till its reduces to a shiny slightly syrupy sauce.  Instead of reducing, you could make a roux to the medium brown stage (if you have read this far I am assuming you know how to do this ! ) and thicken your sauce with this.

Then start adding the Henry Bain's sauce till you get a ratio that tastes good to you.   You still want to taste that ultra rich beef broth that took you 2 days to make !  But you also want the brilliant tartness and depth of flavor that you can get with the Henry Bain's.  Yea, this took a long time, but actually little work, and you can make this several days ahead.

I made this for Christmas dinner, and everyone enjoyed it. My husband went as far as to say that this was the best beef dish I had ever made. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it was definitely very good!

This recipe for the beef tenderloin is absolutely delicious. Everyone loved this easy main entree for Christmas Eve dinner. So much simpler than turkey or even ham. The Henry Bain sauce tastes like a bold, spicier A1 steak sauce. I halved the recipe as not to make too much sauce but also offered a sour cream based horseradish sauce to my guests in addition to the Henry Bain. Personally, I preferred the horseradish sauce, but many guests enjoyed the Henry Bain sauce.

Tenderloin was great, but no one liked the sauce and it made enough for an Army! Really disappointing.

This recipe gets three stars because that is how I'm averaging the ONE STAR I give the sauce and the four stars I give the meat. Sauce was terrible, tasted like A1 straight out of the bottle. Which I guess would be ok if you liked A1 but I don't. We grilled the meat after covering in butter and herbs as indicated, and it was delicious.

This was excellent and so easy. Got rave reviews from my guests. Served it with the Sweet Onion Pudding...also excellent. Accompanied this with roasted asparagus and roasted red potatoes. The Henry Bain Sauce goes great on everything and anything.