Stephanos G. - Sept 20 2022
How To Cut Well-priced Filet Mignon Steaks From a Whole Beef Tenderloin?
Filet mignon has earned its reputation as a premium steak cut reserved for posh restaurants and steakhouses. If you love steak and enjoy cooking, we are almost certain you have tried to recreate some of your favorite restaurant recipes at home. Restaurant quality fillet mignon on a budget? This may be a shocker to you, but it definitely is possible.
The Ribeye Club will let you in on a little secret on how you get restaurant-worthy steaks at affordable prices. Well, it may not be so much of a secret if you have experimented with a whole beef tenderloin before. With just a bit of trimming and cutting, you can easily get six to eight steakhouse-styled filet mignon steaks.
What Is Whole Beef Tenderloin?
Let us start with understanding what a whole beef tenderloin is. It is a long, thin muscle that runs along the back of the cow, just beneath the spine. The tenderloin is a non-weight bearing muscle and is hardly worked in the animal thus rendering its meat extremely tender. It contains minimal connective tissue and is a very lean beef cut.
It is a tender, juicy, delicious cut usually sold vacuum sealed by premium meat suppliers, like The Ribeye Club in Cyprus. It is a versatile cut that can easily be transformed into a beautiful roast or fancy restaurant-quality filet mignon steaks.
The hearty scraps you get from your whole tenderloin make for some interesting dishes too. Depending on your preference or mood these scraps can be turned into juicy beef burgers, stews, soups, or even a great steak pasta. So, can you really call these offcuts scraps?
Understanding the Anatomy of Your Whole Beef Tenderloin
Once you remove your premium quality whole beef tenderloin from The Ribeye Club's vacuum sealed for freshness packaging, look out for the thick end of the tenderloin with its wing (usually attached to the butt end of the tenderloin) piece.
You will also notice that the entire tenderloin has a thin fatty piece of meat attached to it, commonly known as the chain. The tenderloin's tip end is the small, delicate end often used to make tournedos steak. The middle section of the tenderloin is where you get steakhouse-styled filet mignon steaks from.
The wing can also be cut into filet mignon steaks or used to make delicious steak sandwiches. The chain, combined with some wing meat is excellent for fine quality beef mince.
Trimming Your Beef Tenderloin
If you have never trimmed and cleaned a whole beef tenderloin before, don't stress, it is actually quite simple. All you need is a sharp boning knife, a large cutting board and some paper towels.
Removing the chain
The chain sometimes referred to as the tiny tenderloin is a strip of meat attached to the main tenderloin. It is a fatty piece of meat that is easy to identify and remove.
Because it is loosely attached to the main tenderloin, you can effortlessly remove it by hand or with just a few touches of a sharp bone knife. Once removed, do not discard it as this is good meat and can be used in many delicious beef recipes.
Removing any excess fat
Once the chain is removed, you can clean off any access fat that you find on the main tenderloin. Again, this can be removed by hand and very light knife work.
Removing the silverskin
Silverskin, as the name suggests is a shiny layer of connective tissue found across the whole tenderloin. It is leathery, tough and unpleasant, basically inedible. Unlike some connective tissue, silverskin does not break down with cooking, therefore, must be removed.
Even though it is a thin membrane covering the meat, it is quite easy to remove. To remove it, pull a piece of the silverskin from the tail end of the tenderloin, place a thin sharp knife between the skin and the meat and pull away towards the butt end of the tenderloin. Once you get a good enough grip, you can usually pull most of it off by hand. Check the whole tenderloin and remove any bits of silverskin not linked to the main membrane.
Cutting Your Beef Tenderloin Into Filet Mignon Steaks
Remove the wing and cut off the narrow tip end of the tenderloin (too thin to cut into fillet mignon). You are now ready to cut the tenderloin into decent 2-inch filet mignon steaks. You can either use a ruler to measure this or if you are a steak pro, you will probably be able to judge this by eye. Never cut your steaks to less than 1 1/2 inches as this may result in overcooking your steaks.
Beef Tenderloin Scraps
As mentioned above, calling this meat scraps does not do it justice at all. Depending on the size of the tenderloin you could be left with a kilogram of good quality meat to use in many easy-to-cook steak recipes. With your tenderloin scraps, you can make delicious steak sandwiches, juicy cheeseburgers, soups, stews, stir-frys and even great pasta dishes.
Wrap Up
Hopefully, this gives you a better understanding of how to get restaurant-quality filet mignon steaks at half the price or less. And as a bonus, you probably can get up to five dinners from a whole beef tenderloin depending on how you cut it and your personal preference.
So, if you were intimidated by the whole beef tenderloin before, you need not fear anymore. It is fairly straightforward to break it down into filet mignon steaks and more. It is also a great value for money and sharpens your home butchering skills.
Tip: A Variety of Dinners, One Tenderloin
If variety is what you are after, we suggest that you get a two-and-a-half kilogram plus whole beef tenderloin from The Ribeye Club with express delivery to your door anywhere in Cyprus.
From this tenderloin, you can easily cut out a hearty middle roast, at least 6 restaurant-quality filet mignon steaks, steak chunks for stroganoff or stew or ground beef for delicious homemade burgers.
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