Sunrise
Armed with fresh coffee, I was armed for work. It is all quiet in Falmouth and the weather is perfect. A slight breeze is cooling the inside of the boat as I muddle through my work day. I’ve got a lot of software to test and am making good progress.
Noon
I took a break and tried to ascertain what was preventing my AIS from broadcasting over a long distance and from receiving signals as well. I download the newest software and firmware updates, but after installing them I still had issues. It seems that my AIS device is still going strong, but that I have problems with my antenna. The connector outside is somewhat corroded and I applied a generous burst of PB-Blaster to allow me to open the connection.
Early afternoon
After shutting down at work, I finally got around to preparing my tenderloin PSMO cut of beef. It has been in the fridge for a couple of days now and despite being cryo-sealed it is time to butcher it.
A PSMO tenderloin (Peeled, Side Muscle On) initially looks daunting to butcher, but with a little bit of help from YouTube and sharp knives it is surprisingly easy to do. The savings are substantial and the quality of the meat is generally superior to that found in supermarkets.
Purging
Vacuum sealing keeps the tenderloin fresh for a long time. The red liquid in the sealed bag is not blood, but is plasma and called purge. This needs to be drained away, so I cleaned my kitchen sink carefully and used that as my drain. I’m not sure if the scent beckoned a great white shark into the anchorage or not, but I did take care not to dump the rejected parts overboard for fear of attracting the wrong predators into Falmouth Harbour.
Cleaning
Although the whole cut is tenderloin and edible, there are 3 distinct portions. The main component is the tenderloin itself. Then comes the chain, which is a muscle parallel to the tenderloin and which can, for the most part, be removed by hand. Sometimes a bit of nicking with a knife is necessary to quickly separate it. The last part does need to be cut away. The chain has a lot of excess fat and silverskin but is very tasty when prepared correctly. The next part is the head, which is also very tender and tasty but needs to be separated from the main section to allow removal of more silverskin.
The next step in preparing the tenderloin is to clean the main section by removing excess fat and silverskin. While the fat is edible, a tenderloin or filet mignon cut is usually prepared as lean as possible.
While it seems that there’s a lot of wastage, it adds up to surprisingly little volume or weight when the cutting is done carefully. The chain and head generally don’t allow cutting a full-sized filet, they do supply a lot of tender meat for braising, frying or skewering. I’m putting these in a bag and will decide whether I want to sous-vide them or stir-fry them up. Perhaps I’ll do a bit of both.
Filets
The tenderloin yields a lot of good-sized filets of decent thickness. I’m a fan of sous-side so these will be frozen and then vacuum-sealed for later preparation.
After making the main tenderloin filets and other cuts I cleaned up the head and chain portions. These had a lot of silverskin and gristle and I was less careful in butchering here, but still managed to get a lot of square pieces.
While they look like chunks ready for Goulash, they remain tenderloin and can be prepared much quicker yet remain tender. They are going into the fridge until I decide what to do with them.
Dinner BBQ
I decided to BBQ some of the less desirable cuts for dinner. Since I’ve got no potatoes, I chose rice as the side and it is boiling as I write these words. I’ll do a simple salt, pepper and butter preparation for the filet and I’ll go for medium-rare if I can get the timing correct on the BBQ. There’s not much wind, so I am optimistic about my temperature control.
I’m going to cook some extra so that I can slice it into fine cuts tomorrow for a sandwich that I can take along to my “dinghy wrangling” work.