Got to the register just now and when they rung up my tenderloin that I wanted to try for Christmas i realized it was 70 bucks and it was only 3.5 pounds. I was in a hurry so didn't get to go ask the butchers. Will have to go back later.
Any suggestions. I'm not paying 70$.

I use a whole sirloin and prepare it ala Judge Crater steak. It's at least as good as prime rib.

Kroger has ribeye roast for $7.99 / lb this week. Not as good as prime, but better than eating ham!

Beef tender is the best. I love grilling them whole. BUT, they are expensive. Hard to find a replacement for that, but I could get excited about pork! I'm craving some type of Cuban style pork stewed roast thingy.

The way I was going to cook it was a dry rub of brown sugar, paprika, coffee, garlic powder and salt and pepper and in the oven until medium rare.
Maybe that will help with a substitute?

Might just have to go put it on credit!!! Jk, jk

NY Strip Loin, Prime rib (standing rib roast) would be good alternatives, would just cook a bit longer. You could always go with pork tenderloin as well. Probably be 1/3 the price.

Spam

There is no substitute for tenderloin. I've had prime rib that was just as good, but prime rib has waste. HEB has cooked prime rib for $10.72 per pound. I was in there this morning getting oysters for Cathy's gumbo.

They had a display case full of rib roast. They had some that I would not have taken home for free. I stick with the 9th through the 12th rib. You can usually tell by the size of the eye. The cooked prime rib was wrapped in a black plastic bag. They had several in the $50 range. It could be a great buy, but there's no way I would by a piece of meat that I can't see, especially a rib eye.

Rib roast or strip loin ain't much cheaper. They are a tougher cut, so roasting in an oven would be fine. Try Costco or Sam's.

Cook it for a while and pull it out rare. Wrap in foil and let it cook up to medium. Narrow pieces will be medium-well and the middle will be medium-rare.

All else fails, pick up a few of these and let the women's eat cereal

Whole tenderloin cooked for 45 minutes over mesquite. Soy sauce, Canadian hunter, olive oil for a couple hours then kosher slat and black pepper. Made a heavy cream gravy with some mushrooms and red wine and then pinched myself.

Get a big chunk of sirloin, I use whole roasts, about basketball size. Stick a paring knife in it and stuff a whole garlic clove in the hole. Repeat this until you have it well seeded with garlic. Now coat it with mustard, a good thick coat. Convert the mustard into an oven by packing kosher/coarse salt into the mustard until it forms a thick crust and the mustard can hold no more salt. By now, you should have the biggest charcoal fire you've ever built burnt down to a big bed of coals. Drop the sirloin right on the coals. Give it 5 - 10 minutes and flip it over. I used fireplace gloves for this step. After another 5 - 10 minutes take it out of the coals (most of the mustard salt over will remain on the coals) and put the grate on the fire and the sirloin on the grate. Let it cook until it's rare and then serve it.

BTW, Judge Crater mysteriously disappeared. This will too.

You could get something like an Angus Chateauloin. It's the muscle right next to the tenderloin, a center cut sirloin roast. It's a little cheaper, but not a whole lot cheaper. My wife just got one for free. She runs on the Beef Running Team and they gave it to her for Christmas.

Just use a backstrap and be done with it.

Not even close.

Pork loin would be just fine

Cast, big hugs and much love to you, but mustard on any whole beef cut is like putting drug store perfume on a supermodel. Mustard coat works on ham and cheap pork, not beef.

Splurge and get the beef tender.

You're missing out on a good thing.

I ended up getting the tenderloin. Never had it so decided to see what the fuss is about.

Good news. Now, the only way you can screw it up is cooking it too long. Enjoy!

Betting that you were looking at USDA Choice tenderloin.

Go look for USDA Prime Top Sirloin and it's just as good as the choice tenderloin but at a much lower price (I get mine for $7.99/lb).

Going from Choice to Prime makes all the difference in the world.

I used to eat the tenderloin almost raw (blue cooked) and could never find another slice of beef tender enough to do that with ... Prime top sirloin was the one that did it.

Prime tenderloin on the other hand is just out of this freakin' world.

I just saw this on FB, my feed seems like nothing but cars, sports, and recipes. I don't condone this recipe, just sharing.

http://www.thermoworks.com/blog/2014/12/...4-Tenderloin-cs

We had our dinner Saturday and just so you guys know I accidentally overcooked it so it pretty much sucked.

Hey, it's real easy to do. I'm sure it was fine. Don't give up, it takes some practice.