Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Filet Mignon?

Hey guys, I am going to cook[grill] filets tonight. I've several packs that came with my beef and finally decided it's time.
Never cooked them before. Anything I should know? Or do?
Thanks

Going past medium rare is an abomination with a fillet. Other than that, have at it.

Treat them gently, it's a lean cut compared to a ribeye so it doesn't have fat to render and bail you out.

Take them out well before you want to grill them and let them warm up. They should be quite a thick cut and you don't want to end up with them charred on the outside and cold purple on the inside.

Build an asymmetrical fire, hot side and cooler side.

Season the steaks with coarse salt, also black pepper if you like.

Start them on the hot side to get the degree of sear you like. About two minutes a side will do if your fire is really going.

Move them to the cooler side and let them roast a few minutes to your desired degree of doneness.

When you take them off the fire you should put them on a plate and leave them alone for five minutes or so.

Serve up and dig in.

I wouldn't grill them at all. A big mistake IMO as they have no fat- 1. All you're going to do is dry them out. 2. They need some sort of sauce for taste.

Cast iron skillet with olive oil flipping every minute, then add a stick of butter, a few sprigs of thyme and 2-3 whole garlic cloves- baste for the final 2-3 minutes flipping evry 30 seconds. Total cooking time depends upon thickness.

Don't go past medium rare.

Take them out of the pan, deglaze with cognac, toss in some cream, reduce for 3-4 minutes while they rest.

I fear for my wife, it has to be at least medium if not MW.
I'll be using my Smokey Joe.
Figure that I'll sear hers[both sides], move to other side[off heat] and give it a few minutes before searing mine and then move to off side.
Remove
And then let them sit.

Thanks, just not something I've ever cooked.

A close friend's mother is that way, and for all the years I've known her she's always wondered why it's so hard to get a tender, juicy steak.

Assuming they are fairly thick. Here is what I do with all steaks . Take steaks out about an hour before you plan to cook them to come up to room temp or close.Heat oven to 275. Place steaks on a rack in a baking pan. Don't want them resting on bottom of the pan.

Need about ten to twenty minutes of cook time depending on thickness. Cook to temp of 110. Remove from oven season as you like.

Onto to blazing hot grill for three or four minutes side depending on thickness and your desired doneness. I usually shoot for about 125 degrees. Rare side of medium rare. I let the steaks rest a couple minutes which gives a few more degrees.

Steaks always come out perfectly cooked all the way through not grey outside to red in the center. Nice med rare straight through.

As long as we're adding steps and methods besides the grill, why don't we tell him to sous vide them first and flash sear at dinner time?

It took me years to get her to eat beef 'pink', but only if NO BLOOD comes out.

I may try the oven route sometime soon.

Thanks

I could be a wiseacre, and say, send the wife to McDonalds, and I'll eat the Mignon, but, "I feel your pain", my wife likes her beef over cooked as well.

To be frank, a ribeye is the steak for those who must have it cooked past medium.

I just say " I guess you want yours killed, again?"

Simple answer for those that have to have overcooked meat is to cut her steak thin. Hammering the outside to cook the inside is foolish.

If grilling just sear it and then move off the high heat and let the center catch up.

I have the same issue with my wife. Solution is I butterfly her filet. It still goes on about 30 seconds prior to mine.
When mines the rare side of medium hers is done as well.

Flyer

Might try that[butterflying]

For me the problem is the idea of cooking it medium well, not so much the how to.

A conscience is a terrible cross to bear!

Skewer it with some bacon - adds flavor/fat.

Filet is overpriced and overrated. It is tender will give you that, but I have good teeth. Ribeye is where it's at in this house. Even lesser cuts have better flavor. A good steak can stand alone, the bacon is good with beans or on the salad.
Flame on.

You shouldn't need good teeth for a quality ribeye or strip steak for that matter.

That's my take on the fillet too. Folks will go all out bragging about ordering the fillet off of a menu, my initial reaction, that I generally keep to myself,is ... why?

All this fuss about the mignons!

Tell ya what, I'll swap for a couple of flank steaks, and all will live happily ever after?

I love strip steak too. So when I'm hungry enough a thick Porterhouse is great for me.

Glad you have good teeth but your eyes are poor.

The fillet is overrated when it's overcooked.

Properly cooked it's an amazing piece of meat.

But why would anyone use that cut if they had to cook it to ruination?

Any filet mignon at my place does not get anywhere near any heat until it's sat at room temp for a minimum of one hour.

And frankly, rarely does one ever get past rare here, either. If it does, it was probably a mistake.

1) Bring to room temp, drizzle with some olive oil, fresh ground back pepper and fresh ground salt
2) Sear in hot cast iron skillet to RARE.
3) Remove from heat, let rest
4) Deglaze the skillet with 1/4 cup of red wine, chunk of butter, diced shallots, and some sliced mushrooms. Reduce, and add crushed garlic towards the end.

Enjoy!

Agree with sear or reverse sear to 110 degrees and finish on indirect heat or in the oven. Besides a hot grill a smoking hot cast iron skillet will do a great sear but it will redline your smoke detector without proper venting. I don't pepper until after the steak Is done because the pepper will just burn. I always put lots and I means lots of kosher or sea salt on the steak because much of it is lost during cooking. The deglazing sounds like a great idea too.

Filet - super tender, but little fat so less taste

NY strip - nice balance of tenderness and taste

Ribeye- great taste, a touch less tender than strip

For me it's hard to go wrong with strip or ribeye.

My wife and her family like their steak well done. Just a complete waste of money but I only have to pay for it and not eat it.

As long as we are talking about favorite steaks, it's hard to beat a prime top sirloin. One of my go to steaks but must be prime.

Any advice now is too late, hope your steak was perfect. Any overcooked (past 120) can't be helped now.

For the next time, I like the low oven hot sear method and the room temp or even microwave "defrost" accelerated and friggin hot skillet method. Both do pretty much the same.

Next thing you medium rare boys are going to try and tell me is that there is better coffee than medium roast Folgers. Probably eat meringue on your coconut cream pie too.

They came out great[thanks everyone]. The Smokey Joe did it's job as usual.
They are not a cut that I would go in a store and buy, but this white-face steer was half mine, so several packs of Filets came with the qtr I ended up with.
His & hers....LOL

Those look GREAT, and as the old story books used to say, "They lived happily ever after".