How Far in Advance Can I Buy Beef Tenderloin?

I’m going to talk about Buying and Prepping a Tenderloin, Beef or Pork at a budget price. If you don’t need to save money and buy from a butcher, this might not apply to you unless you need to trim the meat. We are in the same boat as you if you are on a tight budget and buy things at the grocery store or buyer’s club. When I buy beef and pork tenderloin, I’m very careful. I’ve learned a few things over the years (decades?). I only use beef tenderloin for very special occasions, but I often use pork tenderloin for special dinners or when I have guests over. It’s cheaper than beef tenderloin.

What we’re talking about is the same cut of meat whether we’re making a beef or pork tenderloin. For many, this is the absolute premium part of the animal. The tenderloin sits beneath the ribs, next to the backbone. It has two ends: the butt end and the “tail”. The tail is the smaller, more pointed end. It starts just past the ribs and gets thicker until it ends in the sirloin, which is closer to the butt end of the beef or pork. Since very little work is done by this muscle, it’s very tender.

Plenty of people love how tender the tenderloin is, but it doesn’t have the marbling of some other cuts. Whether it’s cooked whole or in slices, it’s usually seared over high heat and then finished off at a lower heat. When buying beef tenderloin vs. pork tenderloin, there are very different ways to go about it, but a lot of the same rules apply when cooking both (see below).

Buying Your Pork Tenderloin:

When you buy pork tenderloin, you should do something very different unless you’re at the butcher. If you are there, you can still keep an eye out for sales. Most of the pork tenderloins you can find in stores come in cryovac packages made by Hormel, Armour, and a few other big pork companies. You guessed it: brand-name items like this mean coupons. And when you combine coupons with sales, you save even more.

I don’t buy this cut at a Buyer’s Club because of this and other reasons. They don’t take coupons. Most of the time, the regular prices at Sam’s or Costco are the same as a grocery store sale price, or a little less. When I buy pork tenderloin at Costco, I often open the package to find two small, scrappy tenderloins squished together. It may taste the same, but scrappier pork tenderloin is hard to work with, especially if you want to stuff and roll it. You can, however, tie them together tightly to sear and roast them.

I don’t buy the marinated pork tenderloins at the grocery store or the buyer’s club because I’m a cheap food snob and I like to make my own marinades and recipes, and I don’t like how strong the flavors are in the pre-marinated tenderloins. Some people enjoy them, but regardless, the buying strategy is the same.

To save money on pork tenderloin, buy it at the grocery store and keep an eye out for sales and coupons. If you see paper coupons, printable coupons on the producer’s site, or alerts from your coupon matching site, put them away for a sale. Most coupons will be for a dollar off one, sometimes a dollar off two. A great sale is usually “buy one, get one free,” a good sale is “buy one, get one half off,” and a bad sale is just a dollar off. Use coupons and take advantage of sales on pork tenderloin when they happen. It freezes well and doesn’t take up much space in the freezer. There are times when you can only get two sales at a time, but during sales weeks, you might want to go back more than once.

• Check the store’s rules to see if they let you use more than one coupon per item. If you shop smart, any savings will add up. Watch out for sales where you can buy one and get one free, and use two $1 coupons. 00 coupons, one for each tenderloin. If your tenderloin is $6. 99, but make sure the prices haven’t gone up too much before the sale. If you use two $1 coupons, the tenderloins will cost $2. 50 each. If the first item costs $6, you can get the second one for half price. 99, the second will be $3. 50 and it totals $10. 50. You can get tenderloins for $4 if you have two coupons for $1 off each. 25 each.
• If any of these things happen, make sure you choose two tenderloins that are about the same size. The smaller one (or cheaper one, if you prefer) will always be the one that is free or discounted. It doesn’t make sense to get a thin tenderloin for free or “half off.” Most tenderloins are about a pound, which is “just” enough for a family of four to eat two or three small slices. Just make sure the plate has enough other food too.
• Beware the new, cut down to tenderloin size “tender loins. Even though they’re cheaper than tenderloin, they’re still pricey for what they are: pork loin cut down to tenderloin size. There are times when you can get pork loin for very little money just by calling it that. In my area, it’s as low as 99 cents a pound. When it comes in a fancy package called “tender loin,” it may be much cheaper than pork tenderloin. It may also have been treated to make it more tender and moist, but it usually costs two to three times as much as a regular pork loin.

The same two issues plague the tenderloin cut, whether beef or pork:

• There is always a small amount of silver skin on the tenderloin. This is an inedible part that runs along one edge of the thicker part of the meat. It is best removed. It’s not good to eat, hard to cut through, and your tenderloin might curl up because it will shrink when it’s cooked.
• One side of the cut may be much rounder and bigger than the other. which then tapers to a thin tail. That will cause uneven cooking.

Silverskin is a hard, inedible portion of the tenderloin and gets its name because it’s silverish in color. You’re going to want to remove it. Slide your knife under the silver skin, close to the edge of the thickest part of the tenderloin. Place the knife so that the sharp edge faces up and toward the silver skin. Drag the knife along the skin until it reaches the edge of the tenderloin. You’ll be left with a little “handle” of silver skin.

Hold on tight to the piece of silver skin as you turn your knife around and keep running it along the rest of the skin. Move the knife like you’re sawing, but try to keep the blade at an angle and facing up. Continue until you reach the end of the silver skin. Sometimes it will be buried when it gets down to the tail end. Just work diligently to separate it from the meat. With sharp end of knife up, slide it down the silverskin. The larger end to the left; note the silverskin. Slip knife under, sharp end up.

The tenderloin is cut unevenly, so fold the thin flap back on top of it until the shape is even around the outside. Then, tie it off with some string. To tie something, besides making it look better, the main reason is that it will cook more evenly. Short, sweet and simple, the whole process takes about a minute and is well worth your time.

To get a nice tenderloin, you should tie it about every inch and a quarter along its length, beginning with the thinner end, which you will now fold over. You can tie off one piece of string and then wrap and loop it all the way along the tenderloin. You can also use several pieces of string, wrap each one around, and tie them together. Tie the short end first, then the thick end, and finally the middle. Work the other ties in between. There should be an even cylinder shape to the tenderloin. Ties should be tighter around the thicker parts than around the thinner parts. Tuck the scrappy tail end under to get an even “log” shape. Begin tying from the small end, shaping as you go. Done. It might be easier to just tie every few inches. Note the knot.

The butcher’s knot is super easy. Even though it looks like a normal square knot, you’ll make two loops around the beginning instead of one. The advantage is that this knot doesn’t slip as you tie it, letting you get a good tie. When working with meat that is wet and slippery, it can be hard to get a good square knot tie.

Try using this knot when tying packages. You’ll never have to ask someone to slip their finger in the knot as you tie.

Buying Your Beef Tenderloin:

In beef, the tenderloin is the same cut that is sliced into Filet Mignon, Chateaubriand, or Tournedos of Beef, although generally, you’ll usually save money if you buy a whole or partial beef tenderloin and slice it yourself. When you’re buying a budget-priced tenderloin, you’ll likely need to do a bit of trimming and will have several nice filets plus scrappier pieces. Save every bit; the larger pieces can be gently pounded into medallions and the small bits are great for recipes like Beef Stroganoff or Beef Tips in Gravy; either can be served over rice or noodles.

Beef Tenderloin generally ranges from $5. 99 a pound for grocery store tenderloin on a great sale and up to $100. at a butcher for at least $1.00 a pound! The best deals are usually around the winter holidays, like Christmas and New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, and sometimes during the summer grilling season. To be honest, our cheap family only eats Beef Tenderloin on special occasions, and it’s only cheap if you compare how much it costs to eat at home to how much it costs to eat out.

The grocery store or big box stores like Sam’s Club, Costco, etc. are good places to get beef tenderloins at low prices. or watch for great prices at the grocery. but beware:

• Sometimes, our basic grocery stores will have a deep sale on tenderloin for $5. 99 to $6. 99 a pound. The quality could be different, and it might or might not have a USDA stamp that says “prime,” “choice,” or “select.” The beef tenderloin that doesn’t have a stamp on it is usually “Standard” or “Commercial” grade, and it might even say “store brand” on it. You probably won’t find any beautiful beef tenderloins at these sales, especially ones that can be cut into filet mignon. However, you might be able to gently pound slices into medallions that are thinner. These tenderloins from the grocery store are usually less well-formed and need to be trimmed, folded, and tied (see below) to make them even.
• When looking for cheap beef tenderloin, Sam’s Club and Costco are two of the best places to go. The meat seems to be of higher quality than the deals you can find at the grocery store. It looks like they are bigger than the ones at the store, so you can cut them into medallions or fillets. Again, be prepared to do your own trimming and tying.
• Do not buy the grocery store filets that are labeled as “steak” but are actually cut into the shape of filet mignon and wrapped in bacon, as filet mignon is often done. These are often the round’s cheap eye, and the price for the cut is way too high. They’re good (not great) if you cook them slowly and leave them on the rare side. But if you try to cook them like a filet mignon, you’ll waste a lot of money. You’ll also pay a lot more per pound than if you bought the same cut that was correctly marked as eye.

You might find Alton Brown’s Episode Tender is the Loin from his Food Network show, Good Eats informative, too. I think you might be able to find the video for free, but the Food Network’s EPISODE is $1.99. You can see how this might be confused with Filet Mignon. Watch the wording on the package. Probably an “eye of round” on left, a Filet Mignon (a cheap one!) on right.

Smoke a Beef Tenderloin on a Pellet Grill – and NAIL the Perfect Doneness!