Lomo (Chatas) al Trapo Semi-successful attempt

[gboss]

I had seen Lomo al Trapo posted on the internet somewhere recently and was curious.

Here's the serious eats recipe:

https://www.seriouseats.com/lomo-al-trapo-colombian-cloth-wrapped-salt-crusted-beef-tenderloin-recipe

But I really wanted to use the striploin roast up (in the freezer for a LONG time now) and Red Man recently posted an incredible looking cook of a striploin roast (in the snow). So, lomo means loin, this should work, right? It's just "Chatas" instead of "Lomo"





SE doesn't mention it, but other recipes I saw show soaking the dish towel in red wine. Built up salt, added herbs and other seasoning. I tied the roast before the salt in order to try and make it more round. The 100%cotton towels I found at Target were 16" x 18" This probably would have been fine for a tenderloin, but made it challenging with the piece of meat I was using. For larger cuts, larger towels are needed. The cylinder cut of tenderloin makes salting and tying process much easier, I imagine.









I put it on the coals for the initial 10min and rotated it once. When I flipped it, I took it off for a moment to try and get a probe in. When I put the probe through the crust, I could see a crack form. IT was still too cool, so I put it back on. When I went to rotate it again, the salt encasement shattered and I barely saved the meat and avoided burning myself. Put it all on a tray to reevaluate.










The inside wasn't finished yet, so I took the meat only back out and put it on a grate over the coals to sear and then finish.









It was a delicious way to cook this cut, but I'm not sure I'm sold on the method. Cracking open the crust to reveal the meat is probably dramatic tableside, but it's difficult to get accurate temps and there are a ton of variables to try to account for. Using some of the smoky salt to season the plate is a nice touch but not worth the effort, I think.


Lots of recipes I see call for you to only flip it once and only based on time. SE tells you to push a probe through to get temps, but it seems to me that you can only really do this for confirmation. Leave in probes probably would not survive being that close to hot coils. It seems very easy to break the crust.

cboss suggested maybe adding egg whites to the salt before it goes into towel. I like that idea and think it will make the salt easier to work with to form the crust. But I'm not sure that really solves the shattering when pierced with a temp probe problem.


Anyone have any experience doing Lomo al Trapo or a similar technique?

[Dr. Pepper]

I've never tried any of those at home, but have ordered whole fish in salt a few times, twice in San Miguel de Allende.
As you say, it makes a very pretty presentation. However, the end result is simply a juicy baked fish. And, if the server gets some salt chunks on the fish, it can taste inedibly over salted.

So, it was fun and interesting to try, but I won't order that again.

[Red Man]

The roast looks like it turned out well. Sounds to me like the method is just more work than it’s worth though.

[Polarbear777]

I’ve done the serious eats one with tenderloin. It indeed gets a large gradient in cooking. If you pull it at the right time the very center is rare and the edge is seared and well done and crusty from the salt.

it has to be sliced and eaten as sliced disks because the edge is too salty and the center has none. A slice though is really well balanced if you get it right.

I suspect that this method is more difficult with a hunk of meat that is thicker than a tenderloin. That high heat doesn’t have enough time to get to the center before the outside is toast/cracked.

[Polarbear777]

This is a fun and fancy method but far from
foolproof. Timing and temp is difficult.

[Dick Anderson]

That towel is toast.

[Dr. Pepper]

It's salty toast. Actually, it's salty burned toast.

[smokin fool]

I like @cboss idea of a binder for the salt, along with the egg how about olive oil or mustard, maybe mayo mixed in the salt wouldn't help with the crust staying together.

[Henrik]

I did it here:

But as you say, it’s non trivial. Wet the salt just a bit, makes it easier to form.

I use discarded bed linen (thin cotton sheets). Easy to cut to the size you need.

[texastweeter]

Disregard my comment below lol.

[texastweeter]

Henrik did this once, I think