Football playoff have begun, and the only thing that could get me off the couch over the weekend is a great beer or delicious barbecue.  Saturday’s afternoon games left the morning open to fire up the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, so I took a trip to Cash & Carry to pick up a beef tenderloin.

Beef tenderloin comes from the lower back of the cow and is a muscle that does very little work.  This results in a very tender piece of beef.  One of the most well known and delectable cuts of steak, commonly known as filet mignon, is from the center of the tenderloin.

    
Beef tenderloin

To prep the meat, I first dry roasted whole cloves of garlic.  When the garlic had softened up, I used a fork mash it up and mix in olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Excess fat was trimmed from the meat, it was tied up using cooking twine, and the rub was applied.


Tenderloin: ready for the grill

I fired up the smoker and decided to use apple wood to impart a mild smoke flavor and let the meat be the star.  While the smoker was heating up, I started the gas grill with the intention of using it to sear the meat.  As you may remember from Here’s a Tip for you… A Tri-Tip the purpose of searing meat it to rapidly cook the outer layer to trap in all the natural juices.  When the gas grill was nice and hot, I threw on the tenderloin.  Each side got a quick 45 seconds of cooking.


Seared and ready for the smoker

By this time the smoker had reached the target cooking temperature of 230 degrees.  Tenderloin is best enjoyed rare to medium rare so I was careful not to overcook such a fine piece of meat. It cooked at 230-250 degrees for 2 hours until the internal temperature was 145 degrees.  As always the meat was allowed to rest for 20-30 minutes after cooking to allow the juices to redistribute.

The time had finally come to carve up this masterpiece.  Cutting against the grain, I sliced off one inch steaks.  The meat was incredibly tender and only required the weight of the knife to cut through it.  It had mild smoke flavor which was complimented nicely by the roasted garlic from the rub.


Sliced and ready to serve!