Roast Beef Tenderloin Recipe 1

Instructions

1. The tenderloin for a small family is cut from under the rump.
2. It sells for thirty-five to forty cents a pound.
3. It contains no bone and little waste.
4. It weighs two and a half to four pounds; about three pounds is the average weight.
5. Two or four slices may be removed for broiling, and the rest be cooked as a roast.
6. With the fingers and a sharp, thin knife, remove all skin and tendinous portions, and wipe the meat with a damp cloth.
7. When the oven is ready (about 400 deg F.) rub a little salt over the surface and spread it with salt pork or bacon fat, or fasten strips of salt pork or bacon over it.
8. Set it on the rack in a small pan, and into the hot oven; let cook five or six minutes, then turn, to sear over the other side; in about ten minutes baste with the fat in the pan, dredge with flour, reduce the heat and let cook from fifteen to twenty minutes longer, according to the thickness of the meat.
9. Baste three or more times.
10. When cut the meat should be dark on the outside to the depth of one-fourth an inch, and the center shaded from pink to red, but showing no signs of rawness; i.e., the juices should be coagulated throughout.
11. Pour off the fat, to leave two tablespoons in the pan, add two tablespoons of flour and stir and cook until frothy; then add one cup of tomato puree, beef broth or cold water, or a mixture of these, and stir and cook until boiling.
12. For a higher flavored sauce, a slice of onion and two of carrot may be cooked in the fat a few moments before the flour is added.
13. This roast does not have the juiciness and full, rich flavor of a rib roast, and calls for a richly flavored sauce.
14. Bananas baked in the skin, then removed from the skin and covered with a sultana sauce, are a choice accompaniment to this dish.