~Grillmarked -- Things to Know about the Filet Mignon~
Filet mignon. We are all familiar with this cut of beef, but in case you don't know it's name is French. In French, the word Filet means a thread or a strip, and mignon means small and pretty. Filet mignon, known worldwide as the king of steaks, when cooked properly, is melt-in-your-mouth tender and can literally be cut with a fork. It's particularly pricey if your ordering it in a restaurant, but becomes more affordable if you buy the entire tenderloin and cut the steaks yourself.
Filet mignon is cut comes from the middle of the tenderloin (also called the short loin) which is found inside the rib cage of the cow. Long story short, because this muscle is not weight-bearing, the connective tissue is not toughened by exercise, resulting in extremely tender meat. The technical name of the muscle is poases major. It sits inside the ribs next to the backbone and gets thicker toward the rear of the animal.
Interestingly each animal (lamb, pork, veal, etc.) has two tenderloins, one on each side of the rib cage. Filet mignon beef steaks are cut from the middle of the tenderloin, in between the pointy tip near the shoulder and the thick steak at the rear, which is called Chateaubriand. Porterhouse and T-bone steaks (all of which include the filet mignon as the medallion of meat on the other side of their bone across from the sirloin). Filet mignon steaks are generally cut to a thickness of 1, 1 1/2 and 2 inches and average 2 to 3 inches in diameter. That said, the true petit filet mignons are no more than 1 inch in diameter and are taken from the tapered end known as the tail.
What's the best way to cook a filet mignon steak?
Feel free to take your filet mignon into the great outdoors to cook it on the grill, but, I don't recommend it. Why? The filet, might be cut from the tenderloin, which is the leanest, tenderest cut of beef, but, it is the least likely to succeed over the dry, open flame of any seething-hot charcoal or gas grill grids. That said, indoors, on a grill pan, where it has a solid, steamy surface to sear itself above its own bubbling juices, the filet graduates at the head of its class -- with perfect, 4.0 grill marks too. It's also worth mention that because filet mignon is so low in fat, it is also less flavorful than other prime and pricey steak cuts (like the ribeye or NY strip steak). For that reason is is often served with a flavorful sauce or compound butter to accompany it. Another common technique is to wrap it around the perimeter with a strip of bacon to imitate a fat layer.
Try my ~ Perfect 12-13-Minute 2"-Thick Grill-Pan Filets ~:
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2023)
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