Beef tenderloin gets a festive remake

The only challenge with beef tenderloin is that it is lean (little to no fat) and it is best served rare.

As much as I love prime rib, beef tenderloin is much easier to prepare, easier to carve and the leftovers are good cold.

The only challenge with beef tenderloin is that it is lean (little to no fat) and it is best served rare. I wanted to do something that looked a little fancier than plain grilled tenderloin but was just as easy to execute. I thought about one of my favorite ways to prepare filet — baconwrapped — and thought, let’s see what happens if I wrap the whole tenderloin in bacon mummy style.

I proceeded to wrap room-temperature bacon around the tenderloin, tucking the end pieces under the center of the tenderloin to make sure that it was all roughly the same size. When bacon is room temperature, it will stick to itself and you don’t need toothpicks to secure it. Make sure to purchase a standard thin-cut bacon and make each piece slightly overlap the other, so it will bake into a beautiful bacon crust.

Finally, to make it festive, I decided to add a rich green peppercorn sauce scented with fresh thyme and a splash of cognac. This is now my favorite presentation for beef tenderloin. I love the mashup of the bacon-wrap with the old-school sauce. It just goes to show you that everything old can be new again.

Elizabeth Karmel is a barbecue and Southern foods expert. She is the chef and pit master at online retailer CarolinaCueToGo.com and author of three books.

RICHARD DREW — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Beef tenderloin is much easier to prepare than prime rib, easier to carve and the leftovers are good cold.