Christmas
by: TasteFood
October13,2011
4.3
21 Ratings
- Serves 6-8
Jump to Recipe
Author Notes
This roast is worth celebrating. Dried porcini mushrooms are blitzed to a powder with fresh rosemary sprigs, creating an umami-rich crust for beef. It's stand alone good, but when served with a port wine reduction infused with rosemary and porcini, it becomes an elegant dinner worthy of any holiday celebration. If you have the time, salt the meat well in advance. This will ensure juicy results and a crispy crust. I used a combination of port and red wine for the sauce. The red wine may be substituted with additional port. —TasteFood
Test Kitchen Notes
TasteFood's roast is definitely a show-stopper. Salting and drying the meat in the fridge overnight ensures perfect seasoning, a lovely internal texture and a beautiful crust. The porcini rosemary rub smelled so intense that we were hesitant to use all of it on the meat, but we did and found the flavors mellowed nicely in the oven. We trussed our tenderloin, and you may want to as well for the best results. The rich, winey sauce gains an earthy depth from the additional porcini, and while it may be a thinner gravy than you're used to (to us, it's perfect), it is certainly not lacking in flavor. - A&M —The Editors
- Test Kitchen-Approved
- Your Best Holiday Roast Contest Winner
What You'll Need
Ingredients
- For the Beef Tenderloin:
- 1 center-cut beef tenderloin, 3 pounds
- Salt
- 1 ouncedried porcini mushrooms
- 2 tablespoonsfresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoonblack peppercorns
- Olive oil
- For the Port Wine Sauce:
- 1/2 ouncedried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted in 3/4 cup water, liquid reserved
- 3 tablespoonsunsalted butter, divided
- 1 medium shallot, finely chopped
- 1 cupport wine
- 1 cupheavy bodied red wine
- 2 rosemary sprigs
- 1/2 teaspoonsalt, or to taste
Directions
- For the Beef Tenderloin:
- Season the tenderloin all over with salt. Refrigerate 4 hours or up to 24 hours. Thirty minutes before roasting remove beef from refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine mushrooms, rosemary and peppercorns in spice grinder. Grind to a coarse powder. Rub beef with olive oil. Coat all over with porcini rosemary rub. (Note: Make sure your mushrooms are completely dry and brittle, or they won't willingly grind into powder. If they're at all pliant, you can dry them out in the oven until they break easily.)
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a wide skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add beef and brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a roasting pan. Roast in oven until thermometer inserted in thickest part reads 125 F., about 30 minutes, for medium rare. Remove from oven and transfer to a cutting board. Tent with foil and let stand for 15 minutes.
- Carve beef in 1/4 inch slices. Serve with Port Wine Sauce.
- For the Port Wine Sauce:
- Strain the porcini water through an un-bleached paper towel into a small bowl. Reserve strained liquid. Coarsely chop porcini.
- Using the same skillet from browning the meat, add 1 tablespoon butter, shallots and chopped porcini. Sauté over medium heat until shallots are translucent, about 2 minutes.
- Add port wine, scraping up any brown bits in the pan. Add red wine, mushroom stock and rosemary. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered until sauce is reduced by about half to approximately 1 1/2 cups. Add salt and taste for seasoning. Strain through a fine-meshed seive into a small saucepan, pressing firmly on solids. Discard solids.
- Heat sauce over medium heat. Whisk in 2 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Keep warm until serving.
Tags:
- American
- Wine
- Beef
- Shallot
- Rosemary
- Port
- Red Wine
- Christmas
- Winter
- Fall
- Entree
Contest Entries
- Your Best Holiday Roast
See what other Food52ers are saying.
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TasteFood
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Mark Perino
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marianne.bush
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Megan James
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Nicole Marie Christner
Popular on Food52
177 Reviews
keriswank3 April 10, 2023
Looks delicious, can't wait to try!!!
Jounayet R. January 9, 2023
I tried this and it was awesome 🙂
Diana F. December 23, 2022
I’ve made this three times and every time I almost expect to not love it as much as the last time but it never disappoints! My guests have said it’s one of the best things they’ve ever eaten. Thank you for this recipe!
Joanne H. December 23, 2022
You can buy Porcini mushroom powder on Amazon. No need to grind those mushrooms anymore!
MarcosB December 24, 2021
This is a spectacular recipe. Simple approach and much of the preparation can be in advance. Not sure where some of the negative reviews are coming from. I suspect from less than stellar ingredients. There are so few ingredients here each must be top notch. This is our annual Christmas dinner tradition and always delivers.
TasteFood December 29, 2020
Hi everyone, I wrote this recipe over 9 years ago for F52, and I wish there was a method to edit our original recipes on the site - especially with the long passage of time. Recipes evolve! I've noted the underwhelming reviews of the sauce, and since this recipe was originally published I've tinkered with it a bit for more oomph. I have a few suggestions for more flavorful results: First, discard the mushroom water after rehydrating and substitute 1 cup good quality beef stock in the sauce. Sauté 1 minced garlic clove with the shallots. Choose a jammy, fruit-forward full-bodied red wine, such as a Zinfandel. Be diligent about taking the time to reduce the liquid. Once reduced, add 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar as well as the salt and a generous grind of freshly ground black pepper. Taste. If the sauce is too astringent (this may be due to the choice of wine), you can also add 1 teaspoon brown sugar. I hope this helps – Happy New Year!
Chef T. December 16, 2021
I’ve made this every Christmas and absolutely love it. This year one of my guests hates Rosemary (the horror!). Would thyme or another herb be an ok substitute or do you think it won’t work as well?
TasteFood December 16, 2021
Yes, thyme would be a good substitute for the rosemary.
neenagoswamy December 28, 2020
Hi all! I made this recipe for Christmas dinner and was underwhelmed. The roast came out alright but the sauce really didn't do it for us. For how expensive the ingredients are, I would have definitely assumed the sauce would be an awesome add to the beef, but it wasn't. I might try this again and make the sauce first while looking at some other directions on how to make great sauces - might be poor directions more than anything else!
Kirsten K. January 2, 2020
I made this dinner for 9 people on New Year's Eve and it was a total success. I salted it and let it rest overnight, close to 24 hours. I had tenderloin of 4.95lbs and doubled the recipe for the 'rub'. It didn't all stick to the meat, so I threw the remaining rub into the saute pan once I was done searing the meat. I seared the meat early, so I could make the gravy/sauce in peace without the guests. The sauce was amazing! All of it was so great. Thank you!
Mark P. February 28, 2018
Iv'e made this a few times and one of those times it was underwhelming as Dan aluded to. Here's my 2c. My best resuts were with really good dried mushrooms, no port and only a very jammy red wine. The mushrooms need to smell strongly of mushrooms. If you use a drier red, or less fragrant mushroom it's a thin sauce, and pretty much rosemary beef.
Goes perfectly with sousvide carrots in lemon butter.
Dan February 28, 2018
I know. That's why I was so bummed. Sorry, I followed the recipe figuring if I wanted to add my touch I would do it after staying tight with the original. My wife and I were just disappointed. I've never posted a complaint on the web before, I didn't mean to offend anyone.
Dan February 28, 2018
I've owned restaurants for 34 years. I recently had surgery and lots of friends brought us multiple meals. I thought this looked like an interesting recipe right.? What's not to like, beef tenderloin, mushrooms, wine, shallots. I read the reviews and was pretty excited to try it. Well I made it tonight as a test run before having 14 guests for a thank you dinner. I thought it was pretty bad.will definitely not make this again. I'm so glad I had a test run before I embarrassed myself in front of our close friends.
ChefGam February 28, 2018
I’m so sorry you didn’t like this dish as much as many of us did. Like you, many of us are experienced cooks, some at home and some professionally. I urge you to re-read some of the comments (including mine) and try it again.
marianne.bush December 25, 2017
While the sauce for this recipe is outstanding it got even better when I decided to throw in two other leftover sauces from the fridge - i.e. a mushroom cream sauce and a blue cheese sauce. Holy cow! I don't think I've ever tasted a better combo. Hope I'll remember sometime in the future.
Kym December 21, 2017
I have beautiful dried, local foraged Morel mushrooms on hand. Can I substitute these for the Porchini?
yiase December 10, 2017
Just did a test run and, while the meat received well reviews, the sauce was said to be "ho-hum". I'm not sure if I did something wrong (followed recipe to a 'T') as it was a bit on the thin side. Any suggestions?
Megan J. December 3, 2017
Can you substitute the beef with lamb?
TasteFood December 5, 2017
Absolutely!
Nicole M. October 13, 2017
2 questions: When you salt and refrigerate overnight, do you cover with film, or do you leave it to air dry in fridge? Do you need to rinse when taking it out of fridge before rub?
Also, can I sear it at noon and wait until 6pm to put it in oven?
Thank you!!!
Sauce G. March 7, 2017
How Do You Control The Time When You Grill It
ChefGam January 1, 2017
I made this amazing dish for NYE with two significant changes: I slow roasted it at 225 degrees for about 2 hours. It came out so perfect - with the porcini topping nicely crusted - that I didn't do a "reverse sear at the end, as I had planned to do!
Erin B. December 28, 2016
I made this for Christmas Eve dinner, and it was absolutely DELICIOUS! I doubled the recipe, but would caution not to double the sauce portion, there would have been plenty of sauce had I not doubled it. Our 6.5 lb roast was far too large for any pan I had available for searing, so we ended up searing the roast over a charcoal grill and then popped it in the oven. Worked like a charm!
THEToughCookie December 26, 2016
Cathy Barrow (MrsWheelbarrow) suggested I use this recipe for a roast I wanted to do for Christmas day. I was a little less than enthusiastic, only because I'm not a mushroom lover. However, since the porcinis were powdered on the roast, and the chopped pieces were strained out of the sauce, I gave it a go. I believe it's the best roast I've ever made. Foolproof instructions, flavor that brought the house down. Thank you, thank you, TasteFood. Absolutely brilliant.
TasteFood December 26, 2016
You're welcome, Gail. Thank you for the comment - I am so happy you tried it - and liked it! Happy New Year!
Byron L. December 25, 2016
If you don't have a port wine, any reasonable substitutes?
PamCap 2. December 25, 2016
A nice red wine works well. Make sure it's a bold red
TasteFood December 25, 2016
Yes, a bold red, and a full bodied jammy wine such as Zinfandel will work well.
