Beef in a towel (Lomo Al Trapo)

The folks at Serious Eats have done it again. Kenji posted about the method of cooking beef tenderloin in Colombia (where his wife is from). Essentially it is a hunk of tender, lean meat encased in salt, wrapped in cotton, tied up and placed directly on the coals. It really is that easy as it turns out.

There are a couple of wrinkles, however. It is probably best if you cut the tapered end off the tenderloin. It makes the wrapping a bit easier. We left it on, and folded it back on itself. It worked fine. We also used cheesecloth and not a towel. I didn't want any dyes/man made materials in the towel. We used kosher salt (Morton's). But next time I may use something a bit more exotic.

Ingredients

1 whole beef tenderloin, trimmed, chain and silverskin removed. - About 3 lbs

1 box Morton's Kosher Salt (3lbs)

Enough cheesecloth to wrap the meat - ensure that there are four layers of cheesecloth to prevent the salt from falling through.

Butchers twine to tie up the wrapped meat and hold the cloth/salt in place

Method

About 30 minutes before you want to start cooking use a mixture of charcoal and wood to get a fire going in your grill. We used the Primo - the right size and shape. This won't work on gas - it doesn't get hot enough. In our case the thermometer in the lid registered 800F - so directly on the coals it was probably hotter.

Make the parcel of meat by spreading the 4 layers of cheesecloth out and covering with the whole box of Morton's salt. You will want the salt spread so it is nearly at the front edge of the cheesecloth. 

Roll the cheesecloth tightly, tucking in the ends. You need to ensure that the salt covers the whole tenderloin. Introduce a few sprigs of rosemary as well.

Tie the parcel off at 2" intervals using butchers twine and a butcher's/surgeon's knot.

Put the parcel of meat directly on the coals. Nestle it in and leave for 10 minutes or so. After 10 minutes, turn the parcel over and cook for a further 10 - 15 minutes (until the internal temp of the meat is 95 for rare, 105 -110 for medium rare. If those temperatures look low that's because you get a lot of carry over cooking with the salt wrapper. Don't leave a thermometer in all the time - most such thermometers are not capable of handling such intense heat.

Once the meat has reached the desired internal temperature, Take it off the grill and place in a heat proof pan.

As can be seen in the picture above, it looks pretty nasty at this stage. 

After it has rested for at least 30 minutes, cut open the parcel and brush excess salt off the exposed meat.

Transfer to the cutting board, ready for slicing

Brush further salt off, slice into 1 1/2" thick slices and serve.

As can be seen, this is pretty rare. It tasted absolutely amazing, however.

Serve with horseradish cream (prepared horseradish, home made mayonnaise, and a little yogurt). Roasted potatoes were well received too! Here's their recipe.