How Big of a Beef Tenderloin Should You Buy for 12 People?

Making the Cut: Choosing the Perfect Beef Tenderloin

Before we get to the oven, though, we need to first figure out what cut of meat were working with. A full tenderloin is a big chunk of meat, about four to five pounds. Because a whole tenderloin has an uneven shape, with a thin, tapered tail and a fat bulb on the other end, youll need to fold that thinner end back and tie it into place to get it to cook evenly.

This is fine if youve got a large party of eight to 12 to feed, but for a smaller group of four to six, youll want to use a center-cut tenderloin, also known as a chateaubriand.

This is the center section of the tenderloin, and it has a smooth, even, cylindrical shape that makes cooking it much simpler. (If you want to learn how to save some money by trimming a tenderloin yourself, check out our guide here.)

Cooking it on its own can cause it to sag and turn misshapen as it cooks, so I always like to truss a tenderloin by tying it up at even intervals. Learning how to tie butchers knots makes this very easy, though regular old square knots will work as well.

So how do you get there? Well, traditional recipes for tenderloin (and most steaks and roasts) call for first searing the meat at a high temperature, then finishing it off at a relatively low temperature. By this stage, we all know that the whole “sealing in the juices” thing is nothing more than a myth with no actual basis in reality, right? So, while the standard hot-then-cool method works okay, it actually works better if you do the process in reverse.

Its a thing called the reverse sear, a technique I developed while I was working at Cooks Illustrated (and if youve already heard me talk about it a million times, you may want to skip ahead a bit). These days, I use it for everything from prime rib to pan-seared steaks to pork chops—any time I want perfectly evenly cooked meat and a great crust.

When you start the process by placing the raw meat on a rack in a low-temperature oven (in this case, I went with 225°F—the lowest temperature my oven could reliably hold) and slow-roasting it until the center hits just a few degrees below your desired final serving temperature (a serving temperature of 125°F for rare or 130°F for medium-rare is what I shoot for on an instant-read thermometer), you end up with a piece of meat that has a very small temperature gradient. The meat will be almost perfectly cooked from edge to edge.

Low-and-slow cooking also gives you a larger window of time between that point at which the meat is perfectly cooked and the point when its overcooked.

Once the meat is done, all youve got to do is put a sear on it. With a steak, Ill generally do that in a large skillet on the stovetop. If your tenderloin is small enough, you can do it the same way, basting it with butter, shallots, and thyme for extra flavor and richness. The added milk proteins in butter also help it to brown faster than oil does.

But what if its too large to fit in a skillet, or you prefer to use the oven?

At first, I thought I could treat a tenderloin exactly how I treat my prime rib—just toss it in a 500°F (260°C) oven for a few minutes to sear the exterior. I tried it and ended up with barely browned meat and a big, fat layer of overcooked meat around the outer edges.

The problem, of course, is that fat content again. A prime rib has a nice thick layer of fat on its exterior that can help it brown faster and more evenly. It also cooks more slowly due to this insulation, so even with a 10-minute stay in a 500°F oven, you get barely any gray, overcooked meat under the surface. With a lean tenderloin, on the other hand, 10 minutes in a 500°F oven leads to a chunk of meat thats cooked beyond medium, almost all the way to the center!

So my goal was to figure out ways to speed up the browning process so that the tenderloin wouldnt have time to overcook. It took a two-pronged approach to get there.

You’ve Got to Dry to Get Brown: Using Salt, Time, and High Heat to Get That Perfect Brown Crust

The first step to better browning is to realize that wet things dont brown. Because water evaporates at 212°F (100°C), until youve fully desiccated the surface of a piece of meat, its very difficult to get it to rise beyond that temperature. On the other hand, browning reactions dont really take place in earnest until temperatures reach into the 350°F+ range (177°C and up).

Knowing this, I decided to pretreat my meat in two different ways: salting heavily and a lengthy rest.

Salting a piece of meat does more than give it flavor. It intrinsically alters its muscle structure. As salt dissolves in meat juices and works its way slowly into the meat, it dissolves a protein called myosin—one of the proteins responsible for the shrinkage that occurs when meat is heated. Visually, this change is quite apparent when you compare a piece of salted meat to a piece of fresh meat. Denatured proteins scatter light in a different way from intact ones, giving salted meat a deeper red, slightly translucent appearance, kind of like ham.

A piece of meat that is salted for a prolonged period of time will shrink less and expel less moisture as it cooks. Less moisture expelled means less moisture to evaporate, which means more efficient browning. Since a thick roast cant really be seasoned internally until its sliced and served, I like to salt my meat quite heavily around the edges.

Resting the meat after salting offers its own obvious advantage: partial dehydration of the exterior. As I talked about in this piece on dry-aging (or not, as the case may be), a steak thats been left to sit uncovered for a night or two on a rack in the fridge will develop a nice dry pellicle that will brown very fast.

Combining the salting step with an overnight rest led to a roast that was extremely dry on the exterior after its initial slow roast:

For the record, this is one of the few advantages that the oven-based reverse-sear method has over bag-and-water-based sous vide methods. While sous vide cooking allows for more precise temperature control, it also leaves the exterior of the meat very wet.

This can make it harder to sear, which in turn can end up giving you more of an overcooked gray band than youd like.

Once the whole tenderloin had been slow-cooked, I decided to try to bring some of the flavor and richness of the pan-seared version to the oven-roasted version, figuring that some browned butter might also help it brown faster while providing a lubricating and insulating layer of fat on the exterior.

To do it, I started by browning butter in a skillet, then added some sliced shallots and thyme.

Next, I dumped that browned butter and the aromatics over my tenderloin, using a spoon to make sure every surface was coated, and pushing the shallots to the side so that the top of the meat was exposed.

Finally, I parked the tenderloin under a preheated broiler. Because of the moisture-free surface and the already-hot browned butter, the roast started sizzling and crackling under the heat of the broiler almost immediately. Those sizzling sounds are good news.

A couple minutes and a few turns with the tongs later, and this beauty emerged from the oven:

Would you look at that crust? Normally, Id let a roast of this size rest for about 15 minutes in order to prevent it from leaking too many juices, but with slow-cooked meat, you really dont need to rest more than a couple of minutes before slicing and serving.

Ready for the moment of truth? I find myself holding my breath every single time I cut into a steak or a roast, even when my thermometer tells me that all is going to be well.

Phew! It worked! Nicely browned crust, an ultra-tender center, and perfectly pink meat from edge to edge. You couldnt really ask for much more in a tenderloin.

Okay, I suppose you could ask for a sprinkle of really nice, coarse sea salt and some minced chives. And perhaps a nice steak knife would be fitting. And if you really want to deck it out, some horseradish cream sauce, but we dont want to get too greedy, now do we?

Or maybe we do. Tis the season, after all, am I right?

Cut your own filet mignon! Step by step Chef David will show you how!

FAQ

How many pounds of beef tenderloin for 12 adults?

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  Nov 24, 2024 — It’s actually fairly easy to figure out how much beef tenderloin per person you need to buy: Simply purchase 8 ounces (1/2 pound) of meat for each g…

  

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  Apr 25, 2019 — 1. How much beef tenderloin you need per person. As a general rule, estimate 8 ounces (or 1/2 pound) of meat per person. This recommendation is base…

  

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How many pounds of beef for 12 adults?

Number of guests	Pounds of beef
8 people	5-6 pounds
10 people	6-7 pounds
12 people	8-10 pounds
14 people	9-11 pounds

How much beef fillet for 10 adults?

A whole fillet of beef will weigh around 2kg/4 1/2lbs and can serve 8-10 people.

How much pork tenderloin for 12 people?

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  Pork Loin vs Pork Tenderloin: What’s The Difference? – Food Network

  Jul 12, 2023 — A good rule of thumb is to purchase about two-thirds of a pound of raw pork per person. Pork tenderloin is smaller than pork loin. One tenderloin us…

  

How much beef tenderloin do I Need?

You always want to have enough to feed everyone at the table, which is especially true for a special occasion dish like beef tenderloin. It’s actually fairly easy to figure out how much beef tenderloin per person you need to buy: Simply purchase 8 ounces (1/2 pound) of meat for each guest. If you’re feeding six people, you’ll need 3 pounds of meat.

How many people can a 5 lb Tenderloin feed?

Allow at least 1/2 pound per person in your calculation. How many people will a 5 lb tenderloin feed? If you cut a 5-pound beef tenderloin into 1-inch slices, you’ll have about 14-16 slices; multiply that by 2 slices per person, and you’ll get a serving size of about 8 people.

How much does a beef tenderloin weigh?

A long piece of meat that can weigh between 2 and 6 pounds, beef tenderloin comes from the cow’s loin. It’s low in fat, and very tender. To ensure even cooking, it should be tied with butcher’s twine. (Pssst: everyone will appreciate the break from the bird and this is much simpler than roasting a turkey. ).

How much beef tenderloin do you need for a dinner party?

Here are some tips for calculating the amount of beef tenderloin needed for your next dinner party or special occasion. First, consider the size of your party. A good rule of thumb is to plan for 8 ounces of beef tenderloin per person. If you’re serving other main dishes or have a lot of sides, you can reduce this amount to 6-7 ounces per person.

How much Tenderloin to serve per person?

The size of the tenderloin is a crucial factor in determining how much to serve per person. A whole tenderloin typically weighs between 4 and 6 pounds, depending on the size of the cow. If you’re cooking for a smaller group, you can opt for a smaller piece, or you can freeze any leftovers for later.

How much beef tenderloin per guest?

Beef tenderloin is an exceptionally tender and flavorful cut from the short loin of a cow. For a formal dinner, a portion of 8-12 ounces per guest is recommended. What is the average portion size of beef tenderloin per guest for a main course. Planning a special occasion dinner and wondering how much beef tenderloin to allocate per guest?