Marinade for Beef Tenderloin

[wbrannon]

I am preparing to smoke  beef tenderloin. Does anyone have a favorite marinade for beef intended for smoking. I have used the usual garlic, cloves, rosemary thyme mustard etc. Would be interested in thoughts about something different. I noted in going through old posts that someone has used maple syrup. I'd like to know more about that since we don't get much maple syrup here in So.Car. but I happen to have some frozen from a past trip to Vt.

[Habanero Smoker]

Wow! That's a hard question to answer. There are many ethnic variations, Asian style, Mex-Tex style, Mediterranean etc.

At this time my favorite is:

marinate 1-2 hours at room temperature
1/4 cup Red wine vinegar,
2 tablespoons soy sauce,
1 teaspoon Garlic, finely chopped,
1/2 teaspoon Thyme, dried;

Marinate 1-2 hours for pieces less them 1 inch thick. Longer for larger cuts of meat. If less them 1" thick, marinate at room temperature.

[beefmann]

Welcome to the forum Wb...

never done a tenderloin what i would try is

start off with  cloves of garlic and process them in a food processor and add olive oil in the garlic till it has the consistency of a smoothie or a slushie... take the garlic and cover the loin with it .. then add brown sugar to cover the loin and season then use the following  rub


                                   table spoon
anahien chile powder      2
black pepper                   2
cinnimon sigon                1
granulated sugar            1
cumin                              1
paprika                           2
thyme                             1
fennel                             1
ground mustard             2                 
kosher salt                    3

once you  have aall the ingreadents above mix and apply to the loin ane enjoy

[wbrannon]

Thanks for your replies.
I decided to use a standard recipe from Weber's Big Book of Grilling for Stuffed herb Tenderloin. I modified the recipe by using twice the prescribed garlic leek and fresh herbs and I used portobello mushrooms. I marinated the tenderloin overnight in a Paul Newman garlic and herb marinade. Smoked the beef for 3 hrs. with Hickory and cooked a total of 6 hrs at a cabinet temp near 180 degrees. The 20 or so guests spoke highly of the meat. I also smoked some tenderloin the same way but instead of the herb and garlic I marinated in a Tuscan marinade and stuffed the meat with mountain Garganzola blue cheese. That went over well also.
Thanks again for all the help.

For  Turkey lovers, I go out to  grocery stores the day after Thanksgiving (in the states) and usually can find fresh turkey breasts that haven't sold and have been put on sale- last year I found some at $0.49/pound USD. I can smoke 10 at one time. I did 30 last year. I freeze them and use them for Christmas gifts, church needs and whatever, including my family! It makes a nice relatively inexpensive gift.

[Habanero Smoker]

Glad to hear it was a success.