Roast Beef from Heaven!

I Love roast beef. So for Christmas this year I made a whole roast tenderloin for the family. I was super yummy, so I wanted to share the recipe with all of you , my faithful readers!

To be fair, the original recipe came from Food Network's ALTON BROWN of the long-running "Good Eats" show.

I did tweak it a little from its original form to make it a bit easier for the home cook (i.e...me cooking at home), and I took the cooking temperature down from the original finished roast as well, being that while the meat is resting it gains between 10 to 15 degrees of doneness!

Cook joyfully!!!!

GOOD EATS ROAST BEEF

Ingredients

5 cups all-purpose flour

3 cups kosher salt

3 tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
5 egg whites
1 cup water
½  cup chopped fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, and/or sage)
1 (6 to 7-pound) whole beef tenderloin, trimmed
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions
Place the flour, salt and pepper in a large food processor bowl. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites and water. Pulse the food processor on and off a few times to combine the flour and salt. Add the liquid ingredients with 2 Tbs of the herbs, and pulse the machine a few more time until you have a crumbly textured dough.

Remove from the machine to a clean work surface. Then knead with your hands for 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large zip-top bag, seal, and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.

Transfer dough to a floured surface and roll out to 3/16-inch thickness, approximately a 24 by 18-inch rectangle. Trim away extra dough, if necessary. Sprinkle the remaining herbs on the center section of the dough and gently press down.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In order to achieve uniform cooking, fold over slender tail end of tenderloin and tie with kitchen twine.

Set a large electric griddle at its highest setting; brush the tenderloin with the olive oil and sear on all sides until well browned, approximately 10 minutes. Rest the meat for at least 5 minutes or until it is cool to the touch so as not to melt the dough.

Place the tenderloin in the center of the dough. Fold top part of dough over, flipping back about 1-inch of dough onto itself. Repeat with the bottom half of the dough. Press together the 2 flaps of dough and seal. Make sure the dough is not too tight around the tenderloin. At the ends of the tenderloin, press together dough to form a seal and cut away any excess. Transfer to a sheet pan, place in the oven and roast to an internal temperature of 115 degrees F, approximately 25-30 minutes.

 Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes. The tenderloin will continue to cook 10 to 15 degrees more. Cut salt crust at 1 end and extract meat by pulling out of dough tube. Slice and serve immediately.