Salt-Roasted Beef Tenderloin: The Easiest, Simplest Method — Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn

Every Christmas day, my small family of four shares a special holiday roast: a salt-crusted beef tenderloin. The night before, we exchange gifts with my husband's family — a gaggle of nieces, nephews, aunts, and uncles — and eat a smorgasbord of appetizers. But Christmas day dinner is an intimate affair that my husband and I created as newlyweds. A beef tenderloin was a huge expense that first Christmas and I didn't want to mess it up, so I leaned on a technique I'd learned as an intern on Good Eats: the salt crust.

Whether you know this technique as a salt dome or a salt crust, covering a tender cut of meat or fish with a paste of egg whites and kosher salt does two things. Its primary function is to perfectly season the meat, and the second is to guarantee your success — a hefty promise for two humble ingredients. Seven Christmas dinners later, this is my tried-and-true technique for cooking a juicy, flavorful beef tenderloin in a salt crust.

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