How to Portion Your Own Beef

Rather than buying individual cuts, I like to buy a whole beef tenderloin and clean and
portion it myself. It is slightly more economical and in this way I can free some for an
impromptu fancy meal. To prepare the beef tenderloin, I like to put paper towels under
the cutting board to catch any blood that my come out of the tenderloin.

Now start by removing the silver skin. Silver skin is the iridescent connective tissue
along the one side of the tenderloin that is tough and inedible. To remove it, slip a sharp
knife just underneath the silver skin, angle your knife slightly upward and slice away
from you. Now grab the unattached piece and pull a tot and continue to slice in the
opposite direction.

Don’t worry about the other little pieces of fat. This will add flavor and moisture to the
meat. The next step is to separate the cap. This is a great piece of meat that I like to cut
up and use in stir fries. You see it here running along the side of the tenderloin. Use your
hands to separate the cap from the tenderloin. It should pull away quite easily. You will
probably need to use a knife to completely separate the meat.

Like the cap, the head also needs to be removed. Loosen it first with your fingers then use
a knife. Be careful to follow the shape of the tenderloin. Set it aside and we will cut it up
later. Now that just the tenderloin is left, you will want to trim off any remaining pieces
of silver skin or large pieces of fat.

You can see the grain of the meat running the length of the tenderloin. You will always
want to cut the steaks against the grain. Try to cut the steaks all the same thickness for
even cooking. I have cut these about 1½ to two inches thick. When you slice the meat, do
not 0243 otherwise you will get lines like this. Simply slice through the tenderloin in one
clean motion. You see how much nicer the steak looks.

When you get near the end of the tenderloin, you won’t get very good steaks from this
narrow part. But you will get some lovely stir fry meat. Now remove any excess fat from
the head. You should be able to get a couple of small steaks from here. You can even tie
two smaller steaks together to form one larger steak. This way all the steaks will be the
same size and cooked at the same rate.

For the cap, trim off the fat and 0402 and slice into smaller pieces to again to be saved for
things like stir fry or stroganoff. To freeze the steaks, I first put them on a baking tray
between two layers of plastic wrap so they freeze in individual pieces. When you are
freezing them be sure to shape them a little with your hands. As this is how they will set
in the freezer.

Once they are frozen, I transfer meal size portions to tightly sealed and labeled bags to be
stored in the freezer. If you have a vacuum packing machine, you can also store your
meat like this. This will keep the steal from getting freezer burn.