Like buttah....

We had a beautiful beef tenderloin for supper tonight. As I've posted before, my local grocer carries pastured beef from Beretta Organic Farms, and I can't say enough about our experience with this meat. When I purchased the tenderloin on Friday, the butcher said that this would be the best meat I'd ever eaten.

He was right.

I am not usually happy with meat prepped at home. In the past, I don't think that quality meat was (in general) made available to home cooks. My local grocer has rebranded itself as Loblaw Great Food and have made a number of changes in store layout and selection, including organic deli, butcher and dairy products, as well as lots of packaged organic stuff, interleaved with regular non-organic (i.e., not in a separate section of the store). I have been uniformly happy with everything I've purchased from the butcher, including beef, pork, lamb, chicken (whole and part) and bacon. The same farm also makes deli meat that I buy for lunches, usually Italian turkey breast and beef salami.

Back to the beef. I larded it with butter and put a couple of sprigs of rosemary under the string tie. As per The Joy of Cooking (Julia Child was mum on beef tenderloin), I preheated the oven to 500F and then reduced it to 350 as the beef went into the oven. Cooked to 120F. It rested for 10 minutes before we sat down.

The beef was incredibly tender and tasty. Dinner also included mashed potatoes, shelled spring peas, and broccoli, plus gravy made from the pan drippings. Mmmmm.

Z proposed banana splits for dessert, so while I passed on that, it was a delish finale to another great Sunday dinner.