Pro tip: I stopped trimming whole tenderloins after watching a guy at a shop in Kansas City do it in 20 minutes flat
I used to fight the silver skin on whole beef tenderloins for almost an hour per piece, losing meat and cussing the whole time, until I watched a butcher at a shop off State Line Road chain his knife strokes and peel the whole thing clean in about 20 minutes. The trick was honing every few cuts and never letting the blade wander back into the meat, and my yield went from losing maybe a pound per loin to losing almost none. Anyone else have a cut where one little technique change saved you more meat than any new knife or gadget?
Keeps the blade flat against the silver skin and saws with just the tip while pulling the skin up with your off hand. That last part is what most people miss. They try to cut the skin off instead of letting the skin pull away from the meat. Same thing works on pork tenderloins and even on skinning a whole salmon. The honing thing is real too. A dull knife makes you push harder, and pushing harder is how you slice into the good meat. Once you feel the blade start to drag, two or three quick passes on the steel and you're back to gliding.