Beef Fillet

[CHILLIN]

Started my Armenian cured beef fillet recipe today. The carniceria across from Soriana sold me a whole fillet, about 6-7 pounds, all trimmed, never frozen, from their refrigerated/humidified meat locker. Enough for three rolls, plus a large steak (the mignon end) for tonight. Price 584 pesos, she will thin slice it for me when it is cured for 50 pesos. It is so so tender. I doubt it has much flavour though (if smell is any indicator) so will marinate in soy sauce and garlic 1/2 hour before grilling.

[maw7815]

Do you mean across the highway?  Very inerested in finding this place!!

[CHILLIN]

O.K. - so you go to Soriana. You will notice across the street towards Guadalajara the community slaughter house. All meats have to be inspected and processed there if they are to be sold to the public. Up from the municipal, on the next block, towards the  carretera, but not across it, is a small community, on the corner is the family owned and operated carneceria, now also fresh chicken and local vegetables. There is a new cubbyhole store next to them, selling some sort of healthy food items like smoothies, etc. I don't know. The fillet is a great and tender cut. A whole fillet is about 6 inches wide, tapering down to a tip, maybe 1 or 2 inches, about 3 foot long. They are from young bulls purchased from the dairy farms. The farmers fatten to the point where hormones and corn would be needed to to make them any bigger or fatter. The fillet can be cut across the grain to as thick or paper thin as you want. It freezes very well. You don't have to buy a whole fillet if you don't want to. I don't know how much the shop sells, but don't be surprised if they tell you to come back next week, because they are limited by how much they sell. Two days on the salt now, have given up about 1 to 1.5 cups of water. I am going an extra day because my cuts are double the size of the Armenian lady's. I might try some other seasonings like South African biltong when I get to that stage.

here is the link again to the Armenian recipe I am following:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAtkCykDA-s

[CHILLIN]

This project turned out pretty well. The meat is very tender but a little too salty. I did follow the instructions, but it may be a good idea to soak in fresh water before the drying stage. I will use it like a spice or flavouring. It is super lean. I froze in in chunks, double bagged because it has a strong curry odour (fenugreek)