Filet Mignon

Filet Mignon. The mere mention of the word drums up imagery in your brain of a fancy dinner table in a high end restaurant. And for good reason, filet mignon, is the Brad Pitt of the steakhouse world. Filet mignon typically never disappoints, probably because it’s so hard to screw up (in my opinion). The only thing you can really do to screw up a filet is to overcook it.

So the filet mignon actually translates in French to the “Cute Filet”, and typically when you find filet mignon on a menu in France, it’s referring to Pork not beef. The cut of beef is actually a tenderloin, near the smaller end of the muscle.

 

 

 

So why is this cut of meat so tender? It’s in the name DUH! Actually it’s because it doesn’t bear any weight, and because it doesn’t bear any weight it doesn’t have much connective tissue. When something doesn’t much connective tissue, that usually means some serious tasty is about to occur. That’s what happens with the tenderloin. Typically a cow only produces about 1 pound of filet, so as a result it can be pretty pricey. One caveat to having not much connective tissue is that there is less flavor to be had, so when you prepare filet you typically want to prepare it with a sauce or fat.

Next we look into how much do you cook the filet mignon. That’s really up to you and your preference,but a professional would say don’t cook it any further than medium rare.

For me growing up steak was never really filet, probably a smart decision on the part of my parents because we stupid kids wouldn’t of known the difference between good steak and bad steak. That’s probably why they only gave us cube steak which uhhh is not filet mignon.

 

 

Recipe – Filet Mignon

Ingredients

1, 6 oz. Filet Mignon

1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. of Butter

2 Tsp. Salt

1 Tsp. Pepper

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 Cup of Red Wine

Method

Marinate the filet in the soy sauce and season on each side with salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a pan and place the steak on the pan once the butter begins to foam.  You want your pan to be hot. Sear the filet for 4 minutes on each side. As you sear the steak, tilt your pan towards you allowing the butter to pool at the bottom of the pan, then pour this butter with a spoon over your filet.

Once the steak is cooked, remove the steak from the pan (do not cut it), just wrap it in foil. Now deglaze your pan with red wine and the Worcestershire sauce. Allow the wine to reduce and to thicken, then once it’s developed a slight sweet flavor, pour it over the steak.

Enjoy!