Dave is accurate. The restaurants that do raw beef source quality meat, no trips to Walmart here. Short of sourcing a trusted butcher, you can find Whole Beef Tenderloins in Cryo-vac from a restaurant supply place, Costco or even a grocery store Meat Manager that buys and cuts Box Beef. This is what many folks do, outside of The Biz and you will be you will be good to go. First off, Beef Tenders are the best choice for Taretare or thin sliced Carpaccio. The national packers jump through hoops to maintain sanitary conditions and packaging. This is how they can butcher and pack in the Midwest and the meat arrives fresh, 3-4 weeks later across the country. The real problems with bacteria and 3-4 day spoilage occurs after the grocery meat department staff breaks the seal, handles, cuts into Filet Mignon Steaks and puts it in the case next to Chicken.
Buy the intact, vac-pac tenderloin. Make sure you, your equipment and work space is very clean. Working as cold and quickly as you can, break the seal, trim the fat, sinew, Chain and thin end pieces from the TL. Save the trim to grind for Burgers, discard the silver skin, or cut the Chain and end pieces into Tender Tips. Make single cuts into portions you will consume in one sitting. I do 8oz steaks. Vac seal or tightly wrap portions, several layers of plastic film and freezer paper or foil, and freeze for later enjoyment. Take one portion and rub the surfaces with salt, a teaspoon is plenty, wrap an refer for 1 hour or partially freeze until firm. At this point you can hand or machine slice paper thin for Carpaccio or hand mince for Taretare. You can eat simply as is or dress it up. A sprinkle of SPOG, a drizzle of good EVOO, some thin sliced raw or pickled Vidalia Onion, maybe a little Dijon Mustard, good Crusty Bread, a glass of Red Wine and you are eating like a KING and quite safely...
For years in my Meat Cutting classes, I taught students to trim, and cut whole Beef Tenders. When I would demo portion cutting, I would pause, exclaim I missed lunch and would cut a slice of raw beef, season with SPOG and pop it in my mouth. Most of the Newbie reaction was OMG!
and, " CHEF THAT'S RAW! Aren't you going to get sick!!! " I smiled and expained the reasons from above and invited the kids to join in. Many would but there are an awful lot of folks that that think raw Beef has worms,
No Such Thing, as all commercial beef is USDA Inspected to be wholesome and disease free, and were taught from young that, " Meat Has To Be Cooked! " There was alway one or two students that no matter what I said insisted they would only eat any meat WELL DONE...Those kids didn't become Chefs...
...JJ
Here a good video as to how the trimming and cutting gets done. Chef goes a little far but cutting Medalions/Tournedos, you can go as far as you wish. Just remember to not toss ANYTHING but the Silver Skin (3:08) from the surface! There is a little silver skin embedded in the Chain but Ground or in Tips, you will not notice. You can get a variety of meals from this big cut...Have Fun!