Smoking a whole beef tenderloin question: Remove chain or not?

I'd cut the chain off. There's all sorts of connective tissue in it that might not cook right.

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While reading how to smoke these things every single video or recipe I’ve watched or read said remove the chain.

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If smoking then definitely remove it. It cooks at a different speed than the rest of the meat. You will have a much more even cook on all the “good” meat.

And then save the chain. It makes great stew meat.

The butcher charged you for connective tissue and un evenly sized tenderloin meat.

Hopefully the price per pound wasn't for actual tenderloin.

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The butcher charged you for connective tissue and un evenly sized tenderloin meat. Hopefully the price per pound wasn't for actual tenderloin.

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It was vacuum sealed and on sale for $16.99 LB, but that price was only good if you bought the whole tenderloin. I asked the butcher could he trim it up and cut the silver skin off for me and tie it up. I buy a lot of my beef from him so the butchering part is more or less a courtesy thing. We are pretty friendly when I go in there.

I ended up cutting the chain off and shaping it up a little better. I’ll use that extra meat for beef stroganoff or something along those lines. I understand why perfect looking filet mignon steaks are so expensive now because the yield is not all that great. I looked at the tags and I actually purchased two 7 pound tenderloins. I got 5 lbs of trimmings. My butcher is dead wrong though because there was a lot of connective tissue in there like someone noted above that would not have rendered down. Glad I asked for advice on this board and didn’t throw that on the grill and cook it.

Thanks everyone for helping me out.

I’ve done it both ways. Never bothered me leaving it off, but having the chain to cook separately for later is nice too

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He cut off 2 lbs from a 7lb loin? That’s a ton. I probably get something like 1/4 lb of trimmings off mine of similar size. There’s nothing wrong with keeping it on frankly. If you want only the most tender bites then sure. But it’s not like Ny strips, ribeyes, etc don’t have that same sort of items and people just eat it or cut it off. Tenderloins are just trimmed more for more picky and needy people, generally speaking.

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I did the trimming and probably got too picky making it look fancy. It turned out absolutely delicious though I will say that. You are right 5 pounds of trimmings is a bit excessive at least in my mind it is. Having said that I’ve got a lot of meat to make another meal or two. Those two tenderloins fed about a dozen people. My butcher agrees with you that it’s okay to leave all that stuff on there and just focus on the removal of the silver skin. I’ll probably buy another one in the near future and cook it with the chain on just to see how it turns out. I’m sure it’s exactly what you stated that a person can eat or cut around some of the pieces that might be a little chewy.