Beef tenderloin

A beef tenderloin, known as an eye fillet in New Zealand and Australia, filet in France and Germany, is cut from the loin of beef. As with all quadrupeds, the tenderloin refers to the psoas major muscle ventral to the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae, near the kidneys. The tenderloin is an oblong shape spanning two primal cuts: the short loin and the sirloin. The tenderloin sits beneath the ribs, next to the backbone. It has two ends: the butt and the "tail". The smaller, pointed end - the "tail" - starts a little past the ribs, growing in thickness until it ends in the "sirloin" primal cut, which is closer to the butt of the cow. This muscle does very little work, so it is the tenderest part of the beef. The tenderloin can...