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What’s a true beef filet?
Q: What is the description for a beef filet? I recently bought some filets and when I got home I had to trim quite a lot of fat and silver skin from them. Is this normal?
A: A true filet is a boneless cut from the front end of the beef tenderloin. It’s very low in fat, which is why filet mignon is traditionally wrapped with a strip of bacon, and it is known for its tenderness.
So my first question is about all that fat you had to trim off. A true filet has marbling - wavy lines of fat distributed throughout the muscle - but it shouldn’t have a rim of fat you could cut away.
The second question is whether it was tender. If it wasn’t, I’d suspect you were sold a chunk tender, sometimes called fake filet.
It has marbling, but it also has more connective tissue, so it’s tougher than a true filet. It should be cheaper, too. A good filet costs more because it’s worth more.
