Tartare — some call it ‘steak tartare’, but STEVE BAIN prefers the more descriptive 'beef tartare' — is typically made up of 100 per cent raw ingredients, including raw chopped beef.
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Tenderloin is argued by some as the best cut of beef for tartare as it the most tender and very lean.
Given that the meat will be served raw, it is obvious that there won't be any braising or similar cooking techniques being used to make the meat less chewy. Certainly, your beef is not going to be slow-cooked which in doing so would break down the connective tissue in these hard-working muscles.
Accordingly, it certainly is an option to avoid the hard-working sinewy ‘tough/chewy’ cuts of meat.
Tenderloin is not considered the most flavoursome of beef cuts.
However, you can choose a more flavoursome tenderloin option if you select a piece that is from a breed known for its flavour that has also been grass-fed. Angus is a popular choice.
I use tenderloin for this dish because I'm always looking for something to do with the tenderloin as a standalone hero of the dish.
Otherwise, the tenderloin gets left behind because the other cuts, such as porterhouse and scotch fillet, are more preferential to my palate much of the time.
It would require reviewing many of my articles to elaborate further. I'm certainly not bashing the tenderloin.
I'm just saying if I had a scotch fillet and an eye fillet (eye fillet is another name for tenderloin), then I'd cook the scotch fillet any way that would include searing the surface of the meat to facilitate the Maillard reaction. And then I'd be happy to have the eye fillet/tenderloin tartare.
In case you are wondering, yes — you can use scotch fillet for tartare; just trim away the 'white' bits first.
Sorry that my justification was quite long. Fortunately, the butchery technique is quite short.
Caveat: Before you eat raw beef, read up on some of the food advice related to the topic. Generally, unless there is a bacteria issue in the region your meat came from, it is considered fine to eat well-looked after meat from well-looked after animals. If you like you can freeze the meat first before thawing, processing and eating.
Step 2: Cut a portion-controlled 150 gram piece from the muscle. If you cut the tapered end(s) for tartare, then you can steak the rest and use the steaks in a marinade or in beef wellington, for example.
Step 3: 150 grams of beef (three 150 gram serves of red meat equals the 450 grams per week Australian Dietary Guidelines).
Step 4: Now taking the knife, open the meat out so that it can lay flat.
Step 5: The splayed-out meat with any sinew trimmed off.
Step 6: Next, cut the meat into thin strips.
Step 7: The meat cut into thin strips.
Step 8: Finally stack the meat strips together, give your knife's edge a lick on the sharpening steel, and cut across the meat strips to cut the meat into very small cubes.
Step 9: These cubes are the ideal size for beef tenderloin tartare. Cubes are preferred to mince, because unlike mince, when cut to cubes, the proteins haven't yet been worked to binding, and there is no added fat (added fat is the main reason why 'ground' meat products, like mince patties, are always recommended to be fully cooked through).
