Filet Mignon Basics?

I got a couple of filet mignons tonight from Trader Joe's for my belated anniversary dinner tomorrow night.

I was going to grill them, but I'm not sure how else to season/prepare them and am open to any advice anyone has. Since I'm not doing it until tomorrow, if there's anything that needs to be done overnight, that would be fine.

I guess I just want your basic well-seasoned steak, but I don't know if there's anything beyond salt and pepper I should add.

Any grilling advice? Be aware, I'm working with what is essentially a propane camping grill, nowhere near the top of the line. It gets the job done, though.

Instructions from Cook's Illustrated:

Turn on all burners to high, close lid, and heat grill until very hot, about 15 minutes. Scrape grill grate clean with grill brush; leave one burner on high and turn other burner(s) down to medium.

Rub filets lightly with olive oil (1/2 tsp) and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Personally, I use kosher salt because it's easier to sprinkle.

Grill the filets for 2 1/2 - 3 minutes per side on the hot side of the grill. Finish them on the cooler side, turning after 3 minutes. Cook them for 6 minutes total for rare (120 degrees); about 7 minutes for rare/medium-rare (125 degrees), about 8 minutes for medium/medium-rare (130 degrees), or 9 to 10 minutes for medium (135 to 140 degrees).

Don't forget to let the meat rest for 5 minutes.

I like a compound butter with filet mignon because the flavor is so mild. I make maitre d'hotel butter with lemon, shallots, and herbs and freeze it in cubes.

Happy anniversary.

Since your grill really is not a grill, why not just pan sear and finish in the oven? you could make a pan sauce with some red wine and shallots and maybe some demi.
Al least that's what I would do...

I'd remove the meat from the 'fridge about two hours prior to cooking and salt the meat an hour before cooking. Just before placing the meat in a very hot cast iron skillet I'd blot the steaks to get them as dry as I could. 4 or so min. per side and then into a 350˚ oven till they hit 120˚ (for med. rare) and then hold for 10 min. with a foil blanket (not too tight) then make your pan sauce.

good luck

mhill95149 wrote:Since your grill really is not a grill, why not just pan sear and finish in the oven? you could make a pan sauce with some red wine and shallots and maybe some demi.
Al least that's what I would do...

I'd remove the meat from the 'fridge about two hours prior to cooking and salt the meat an hour before cooking. Just before placing the meat in a very hot cast iron skillet I'd blot the steaks to get them as dry as I could. 4 or so min. per side and then into a 350˚ oven till they hit 120˚ (for med. rare) and then hold for 10 min. with a foil blanket (not too tight) then make your pan sauce.

good luck

I agree completely with Mel. This is the way to do it. Put on more salt than you think your gut thinks you'd need, is my only advice, and the compound butter suggestion above is also good.

Double agreed: I don't grill filet mignon; pan sear(finish in oven depending on thickness)...deglaze with red wine, shallot, maybe garlic, maybe beef stock...

Hi,

Depending on your steak's thickness, consider flipping them at least once in the oven. I didn't on one occasion to find one side more cooked than the other.

Regards,

I like to sear my steaks on a bed of Kosher Salt with no oil in a non-stick pan. It makes for a great sear and seasons your steak all in one move. Because the filets won't release a lot of fat . you may want to add some butter to your pan sauce for richness

Here is another approach which I have been using with great success on thick steaks (this also cribbed from CI):

Start your meat straight from the fridge in a pan in the oven at ~275-300 degrees and heat until the meat temp gets up to around 90 degrees or so... then sear 2 minutes per side in a hot pan.

Gives me a perfect medium rare with a pretty crust every time and I've found it does indeed eliminate the "gray zone" that I get from the traditional sear/cook order.

Like everyone has said and more...

Make sure that grill gets very very hot, the grill marks arent just for looks but also for flavor.

Seasoning is pretty simple to me...kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. ( I heat up fresh peppercorns in a saute pan until you can smell the great aroma of them and crush them soon after with a heavy pot or grinder, this gives for a fresher flavor)

If you have a heavy pan you can follow the instruction of the other members by pan searing them and finishing them in the oven on a seperate pan while you make a sauce in the pan they were seared in.

A compound butter is always a good choice and very easy to make. I'd make a bunch of them, roll them into tubes and wrap in plastic wrap to use right out of the freezer.

What do you plan on serving with them?

While steak au poivre is traditionally made from strip, I like filet with this preparation method, as well. Here's a good basic recipe, although I use cream instead of dark stock as the base of my pan sauce, and I only use a combination of black, white, green, and sometimes pink peppercorns (whatever I have on hand) as the pepper component.

Very helpful, everyone! Thanks!

I had intended on doing them on the grill just because it's getting summer-y out so it's fun to grill and not so fun to turn on the oven. I live in a second story condo with a western exposure and no central air...once May hits, I try to turn on the oven as infrequently as possible. However, it looks like today isn't going to be terribly hot, so finishing the steaks in the oven might be possible.

I've never made a compound butter before- some of the directions I found online say the butter has to be softened before making it (I assume to make mixing easier) and/or chilled for two hours after making it. Since I'll be stopping at the store for the herbs/shallots/lemons/whatever I decide to throw in there on the way home from work today, and it's just going to end up getting melted over the steaks anyway, can I chop the butter finely before mixing and skip the chilling afterwards? I won't get home until after 6 and want to eat dinner sometime before, oh, 10:00.

I have no idea what I'm serving them with, Jayz. The boyfriend is pretty picky about his vegetables, so I'm thinking steamed broccoli.

YourPalWill, if I use that method, do I melt the butter, add the salt, steak on top? Or does the butter go in towards the end?

Just one other thing- remember to rest the meat out at room temprature for at least an hour (ideally 2 or so) before you cook it. Cold steak does not cook well at all.

Right after flipping to sear the second side, baste it continuously with butter and whatever herbs you're using before finishing it off in the oven. Wouldn't want that crust to dry out. After pulling it out from the oven, I sometimes add a fresh dollop of butter and baste some more.

kanin wrote:Right after flipping to sear the second side, baste it continuously with butter and whatever herbs you're using before finishing it off in the oven. Wouldn't want that crust to dry out. After pulling it out from the oven, I sometimes add a fresh dollop of butter and baste some more.

I think Paula dean just shed a tear of joy

Your lil grill won't get hot enough to do a filet justice. I second the pan sear and finish in the oven.

I rub the steaks with olive oil. I always use sea salt and fresh ground pepper. I'll sometimes add garlic - either to the olive oil or the pan itself.

I've used butter instead of OO with great results.

Sear each side - cover and throw them in the oven @ 350 for 10 minutes.

I've never used a grill like yours and therefore I don't know how hot it gets, but some portable gas grills work fine. It's true that very small, cheap (around $50) ones don't usually produce enough heat.

With regard to the butter, I suggest you either use a food processor or soften the butter in the microwave before you add the herbs and other ingredients. Either way, you can use the mixture immediately after mixing -- no chilling required.

If you don't have a food processor, try heating the butter in the microwave for 1 minute at 10 percent power. If isn't not sufficiently softened, heat it for an additional 20 seconds at 10 percent power. Once your butter is softened, transfer it to a bowl and stir in the other ingredients.

I like to freeze compound butter in cubes for later use, but you can also shape it into a log, wrap it in plastic wrap or parchment, freeze it, and cut off as much as you need.

Personally, I never sear steak in a non-stick pan because a traditional pan develops more fond (browned bits) than a non-stick pan does. If you do decide to deglaze the pan in order to make a pan sauce, fond means more flavor.

I'd never cook meat on a large quantity of salt (if I interpret "bed" of salt correctly). You want the meat to come into direct contact with the pan.

If you finish the filets in the oven, don't cover them, or they'll steam and the sear you put on them will soften. Taking the meat's temperature is a better idea than cooking for a set number of minutes. If you want the best flavor, don't cook filet mignon past medium-rare. You do want to cover them lightly with foil while they're resting, however.

jpschust wrote:Just one other thing- remember to rest the meat out at room temprature for at least an hour (ideally 2 or so) before you cook it. Cold steak does not cook well at all.

I think this is one of the most important things of all. I made filet mignons once that were cold out of the fridge, and the result was awful. The outside was browned and hard and the middle was pink, dry and tasteless.

The Cook's Illustrated method, which was mentioned earlier, in which the steak is brought to 90-100 degrees in the oven before grilling or pan searing, produces a steak that is an even rare or medium-rare throughout with a thin charred crust.

When the steak is seared first, the well done crust is much thicker and reduces the size of the desired doneness to the very center of the steak.

The dinner got postponed until tomorrow night- I forgot about a meeting I had tonight. The good news is that I don't work tomorrow, so I'll be home and can leave the butter out all day to get to the right temperature and take the steaks out a couple hours ahead of time.

I think I'm going to go with the pan-seared/oven-finished method. I really doubt my little grill gets hot enough.

Thanks again, everyone!

A post so nice I submitted it twice!

The steaks were a great success! I took a little advice from everyone, I think.

First I left them out for awhile to get down to room temperature. Then put them in the oven at 300 for a few minutes, till they got a little warm. Heated up the pan on the stove (just a stainless steel skillet, since I don't have a cast iron pan.)

I salted and peppered them when they came out of the oven, then threw them in the hot pan for about 2 minutes on each side. After I seared the first side and flipped, I put some beurre maitre d'hotel (got the recipe from here; used the recipe someone posted in the comments for the exact proportions) on the seared side. When I put them back in the oven pan, I put the buttered side down and buttered the other side. Stuck them in at 350 for about 5 more minutes, then took them out to rest (covered loosely in foil.)

Meanwhile I made some broccoli and used part of the leftover butter over that. I deglazed the pan with some red wine and garlic, threw in some more of the butter mixture into that.

Next time, I might make it a little less lemony, although it did taste surprisingly good- I wouldn't have thought lemon and that steak would have worked that well. The meat was perfectly rare/medium-rare. I think the thermometer said 130 or so when I took them out of the oven. I don't know how well that means they were cooked, but they didn't seem anywhere near medium to me. We like them nearly bloody, so it was perfect.

As Online quoted:
"Turn on all burners to high, close lid, and heat grill until very hot, about 15 minutes. Scrape grill grate clean with grill brush; leave one burner on high and turn other burner(s) down to medium."

Before I light my gas grill, I cover the entire grill with a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side down. This holds the heat against the grill bars, in effect turning the grill into a self-cleaning oven. After warm-up remove (and save) the foil and scrub the bars briskly with the appropriate brush.

The foil can be used many times before it becomes too blackened or wears out. I just fold it once and store inside the grill.

h/t to Phillip Schulz, Cooking With Fire and Smoke

abe_froeman wrote:The steaks were a great success! I took a little advice from everyone, I think.

First I left them out for awhile to get down to room temperature. Then put them in the oven at 300 for a few minutes, till they got a little warm. Heated up the pan on the stove (just a stainless steel skillet, since I don't have a cast iron pan.)

I salted and peppered them when they came out of the oven, then threw them in the hot pan for about 2 minutes on each side. After I seared the first side and flipped, I put some beurre maitre d'hotel (got the recipe from here; used the recipe someone posted in the comments for the exact proportions) on the seared side. When I put them back in the oven pan, I put the buttered side down and buttered the other side. Stuck them in at 350 for about 5 more minutes, then took them out to rest (covered loosely in foil.)

Meanwhile I made some broccoli and used part of the leftover butter over that. I deglazed the pan with some red wine and garlic, threw in some more of the butter mixture into that.

Next time, I might make it a little less lemony, although it did taste surprisingly good- I wouldn't have thought lemon and that steak would have worked that well. The meat was perfectly rare/medium-rare. I think the thermometer said 130 or so when I took them out of the oven. I don't know how well that means they were cooked, but they didn't seem anywhere near medium to me. We like them nearly bloody, so it was perfect.

I'm glad to hear you had a succesful dinner. A few things I wanted to add...#1 130 as you stated would be minimum for medium-rare and exactly as you said it was, congrats. #2 lemon goes a long way, use sparingly as noted #3 the butter everyone kept suggesting is supposed to be put on top of the steak before serving to melt over in flavor. The way you used it isn't 'wrong' but just wasn't what was suggested. Congrats on the dinner gone right. Post back with future dinner plans.

Thanks for the additional details, jayz. Here's the post I based my decision to baste while they were in the pan on:

kanin wrote:Right after flipping to sear the second side, baste it continuously with butter and whatever herbs you're using before finishing it off in the oven. Wouldn't want that crust to dry out. After pulling it out from the oven, I sometimes add a fresh dollop of butter and baste some more.

Hey, it worked and like jpschust said, Paula Deen shed a tear of joy!

MikeLM wrote:Before I light my gas grill, I cover the entire grill with a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, shiny side down.

Just as a note, you won't get any difference whether it's shiny side up or down.