Prime New Zealand Beef Whole Fillet | ±2kg

Prime New Zealand Whole Fillet - Steaks, Châteaubriand or Whole Roast

±2kg, delivered chilled. Serves 6 to 8. 100% grass-fed.

1. Straight from the fridge
Your fillet arrives chilled and vacuum-packed. Keep it at 0-4°C in its unopened pack and use it by the date on the label. If you have frozen it yourself, thaw it in the fridge in its pack, allowing 24 hours.

2. Check it over
This fillet comes chain off, so the trimming is mostly done. Run your fingers along it for any remaining silverskin and slide a thin knife underneath to strip it away in lengths. Silverskin does not render and will pull the fillet out of shape as it cooks.

3. Decide how to break it down
A piece this size gives around eight steaks, or a Châteaubriand from the thick centre with steaks either side. Cut what you want now and wrap and freeze the rest, using it within 12 months. The tapering tail is best sliced for a stir-fry or a stroganoff rather than cooked as a steak.

Method A - Steaks (around eight at 180 to 200g)

4. Cut across the fillet at 4cm. Temper 30 minutes, pat dry all over including the sides, and salt generously.

5. Heavy pan on a high heat with a neutral oil or beef dripping. Grass-fed fillet is the leanest beef in the kitchen and renders almost nothing of its own, so it needs fat in the pan.

6. Sear 2 minutes a face, then roll the steak onto its sides with tongs, 30 seconds at a time, all the way round. A fillet has as much surface on its sides as on its faces.

7. Pull at 52°C and rest 5 minutes. Use a probe. There is no marbling here to forgive an extra minute.

Method B - Châteaubriand or whole roast (reverse sear)

4. Tie the piece at 4cm intervals so it holds an even round, folding the thin tail back under itself so the whole joint is one thickness. Salt all over and leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge overnight if you can.

5. Out of the fridge one hour before cooking. Oven at 110°C on a rack over a tray, until the centre reaches 48°C. Allow roughly 30 to 35 minutes per kilo. Go by the probe.

6. Rest 10 minutes, then sear hard in a very hot pan with butter, basting as you turn it, until brown all over. Pull at 52°C.

7. Rest 15 minutes, remove the string and carve at 2cm. A tied fillet is even in thickness, so every slice comes out the same.

Give it a sauce. Unlike a marbled cut, a grass-fed fillet carries no fat of its own to finish with. Béarnaise, peppercorn, a red wine jus or a flavoured butter melted over the rested meat all earn their place here.

If fresh
Keep refrigerated at 0-4°C in its unopened vacuum pack and use by the date on the label. You can freeze it unopened at any point up to that date - at -18°C or below it will keep well for up to 12 months.

If frozen
Keep frozen at -18°C until needed. Use by the date on the pack.
Defrost in the fridge, in its packaging, allow 24 hours. Never defrost at room temperature or in a microwave.
Once opened or defrosted, keep refrigerated at 0-4°C and use within 24 hours. Do not refreeze once thawed.
A faint metallic smell on first opening the pack is normal for vacuum-packed beef and will disperse within a few minutes in open air.