As anyone who has ever seen a porterhouse steak knows, saying there's no bone on
a tenderloin is like saying there's no bone on a sirloin.

I'll make you a hanger steak that knocks your socks off.

Naive question: What is a hanger steak?

Why I'm asking is I decided to try making one after having a good one at a restaurant. I went to the local butcher, who's as cantankerous as his meat is tasty, and got a bit of a tirade about how he didn't know what that was. (Or, he continued, he didn't know what a "flat iron steak" is, either.) I left with steak tips. Any guidance?

It's also called butcher's tenderloin and is said to be where the carcass is hung up (chest of the cow presumably where the thorax is?). Skirt steak is in its proximity and is of a similar texture taste. Flank is meatier and less so. The cut is hard to find due to the limited quantities.


Same thing at one of my favorite restaurants, to the point I'm not that keen about ordering it. I have to speak to the chef/owner.


Recipe/technique, please. I understand it calls for a lot of marination?


FWIW, skirt steak makes wonderful beef fajitas and cuban ropa vieja.

How does everyone who likes flank steak like theirs done? Marinated then grilled?

Completely agree

IMO flank is to good to mess up with marinade. Salt, pepper, garlic. Hot grill. Rare to medium rare. Slice thinly on a diagonal. Good cold also. I have two from Costco in the fridge right now.

Back on topic, I know why people like filet mignon, just not why they like it wrapped in bacon. Sort of messes up two good things. If filet is too lean for you, slather it in butter! Now that's yum!

If the meat is good and flavorful, why tart it up with so many ingredients? It sounds like a rumble on a plate!

I personally prefer hanger or skirt steak, flash-seared to crustiness and rare inside. Maybe a red-wine reduction of the pan juices.

ed. to add: rubbed with salt a couple of hours before cooking (per Judy Rogers), then briefly marinated with some or all of the following: salt, pepper, balsalmic vinegar, Worcestershire, soy, red wine, olive oil, minced shallots.

(Heh. I did just grumble about tarting up good ingredients. But feedlot beef needs all the help it can get, IMHO)

I like filet mignon for the texture. When done right, it can be amazingly tender and juicy.

I used to like the Chinese-style treatment, where one
uses it like a flank steak:
--mm
Beef with mushrooms and onions
cat: mine, main, mean
servings: 4

1 lb mushrooms
1/2 lb onions
oil
salt
1 lb hangar steak
1 clove garlic, mashed
2 Tb soy sauce
1 Tb sake or dry sherry

Clean and slice mushrooms. Dry saute over high heat until
browned. Remove and set aside.

Slice onions thin. Saute in a small amount of oil over high
heat until soft; lower heat to minimum, salt, and allow to
caramelize. Add to mushrooms.

Slice hangar steak on the bias, teasing meat off the big
gristly sheet in the middle. I of course fry this gristle
separately for "cook's treat" - it is perhaps 15-20% of the
total weight of the thing. You see this cut (diaphragm?) on
menus and labels as "hangar" and "hanger." I don't know which
is right. This is a very tasty but troublesome cut and is quite
expensive in NYC - rivaling sirloin in price at times (this was
$6.49/lb - I don't know where I'd seen flank steak recently for
$3.99, but flank is almost equivalent (hangar is somewhat more
savory but has the gristle) and makes a most satisfactory
substitute. Marinate in garlic, soy, and wine for at least 30
min and then saute in a little oil over highest heat.

Combine with onion-mushroom mixture and serve with rice.

Source: moi, August 2001

---
but lately, becoming an adherent of the less is more credo,
I treat the cut even more simply. Marinade is superfluous.

I take the meat with the gristle cut out, rub a cut clove of
garlic over it, salt it, pat it dry as possible. Heaviest
frying pan in the house, heated as hot as possible. Strew a
little salt in the bottom of the pan and lay the meat on top.
Cook a couple minutes, flip, and cook a couple minutes more
for the way I like it (very rare). Slice into thin sheets,
the knife at a very shallow angle to the cutting board. I've
found that the relation of the cut to the grain of the meat
is not all that important but do tend to cut against the grain
by force of habit.

I prefer a good, simple baguette to Pop Tarts, even though many claim that Pop Tarts have "more flavor."

Likewise, I prefer filet mignon to ribeye....

i eat filet and occasionally prime rib.

if its wagyu/kobe/etc, it can be extremely marbled.

i also never do any addition besides au jus.

Filet Mignon is indeed pork for me. If I want a nice beef filet, I will ask for a Chateaubriand or for a Tournedos Rossini, but then, I am French :D

I can't believe all the people who love filet!

It really is flavorless and requires a good amount of sauce (no not A1 or barbecque, something like a red wine or mushroom sauce).

I love rib-eye in the US.

But my favorite is what they call rump steak in Australia, and I can't seem to find an equivalent anywhere else. Bring me a rare rumpsteak from Kelly's or Hurricanes' and preferably some sauce au poivre, and I will be one happy camper.

Because they don't know what real steak tastes like?

again, wagyu/etc + filet = win. although i might prefer raw. havent had that yet.

i prefer steak medium rare i think, but eat raw beef/fish/eggs as well.

i would never eat dry aged.

I generally go with filet because I eat my steak very, very rare (30 seconds on each side, max) -- other custs tend to be on the chewy side that rare. But I agree, anything more than black and blue requires a different cut of meat.

As for the filet v. filet mignon debate, I was taught that filet mignon includes that small tail piece on the end, while the filet omits that.

Serious question: How hot is your grill/oven/pan? I understand blue, but 30 seconds? I think my curiosity is what benefit does that 30 seconds give as opposed to eating it just, uh, raw?

ETA: I only have electric stove/broiler and lame propane grill, so things tend to get barely gray on the outisde in 1 minute or so and not much improved for 2-5 minutes per side.

I don't normally do it this way, but an electric stove on high with a cast iron skillet well pre-heated can achieve this easily in 30 seconds.

Having lived in Houston, Austin and Calgary, I really loved my ribeye. But living in London, I really learned to love 21 day aged rump steak that one can buy at Mark & Spencer...medium rare with some nice wines.

Filet Mignon, never was a big fan.

If I want a real steak I want a NY Strip with all it's tangy (dry aged preferred) beefy goodness. Barely a sprinkling of salt needed.

If I want a "Fancier" steak with a great sauce, a filet is best for that. I love the old standards - Bearnaise, red wine reduction, and I make a great sauce at home with cream, mushrooms, Gorgonzola and a hint of chipolte peppers (epicurious.com recipe "Filet with Gorgonzola Sauce"). Filet is a perfect blank canvas for a great sauce.

I'm afraid you are wrong. 'filet' ("fil-lay") is a pretentious way of pronouncing fillet, the most expensive cut of beef.

International board, you have to be prepared to understand that different countries have different terms for food. It's probably best not to attempt to lecture if you don't get the reference - in the UK, it's called fillet steak ;)

Interestingly, I've found fillet to be pretty bland in the US and nearly always a bit disappointing, so tend to order steaks with a bit more flavour. In the UK, it doesn't seem so bad - different quality of restaurants? Different rearing methods? Perhaps it needs slower growth, less reliance on hormone to actually work? I don't know, but I'll keep ordering fillet over here and avoiding it over there!

I'll choose fillet because I'm not a huge fan of meat fat, so if there is a nice sauce, I have to do less scraping of the sauce to ensure that I amn't going to get a mouthful of nasty fat.

Combination of things, as I understand it. UK rearing standards for beef, lamb and pork products are pretty strict now, given past epidemics. Hormones aren't used, and grass-fed is the norm, although barley (with some corn) is used too.

Part of this is legislation, part of it is down to the land in use, part of it local taste. In the US, tenderness of meat seems to be a big thing, but people here seem to like more texture and stronger flavour. Hence the classic roasting joint in the UK being topside, with a good chunk of extra fat tied to the top for good measure :)

It's been years since I've seen filet mignon tails, which used to sell for much less per pound than the full sized steaks. They were pretty tasty, after trimming and a good marinade.

I'll do filet at home from time to time, but I pair it with a mushroom and brandy cream sauce that I make.

I start by generously salting and peppering the meat and then searing it to rare in a pan. After removing the meat, I add minced shallots to the pan, followed by sliced mushrooms (I prefer cremini for this application, but anything works, including button). Once those have cooked down (abosrbing the beef flavor), I add brandy and let it flame off. Finally, I add cream and minced parsley, finishing with salt and pepper as required. I eat my beef very rare, but I'll finish my wife's in the oven as I'm making the sauce to get it to medium rare.

I like skirt steak for faijitas. I do my own dry rub, which I rub on the meat.

At a steakhouse, I prefer New York Strip. For roasting, I'm a standing rib roast guy.

All this said, I probably eat steak or roast beef less than once a month on average.

What do you eat most nights?

I pretty much snack all day long and rarely eat a full meal in the evening. I keep a mini fridge in my office stocked with cheese, carrots and, starting now, apples. I also have a jar of almonds.

When I do eat at night, I often tap into my stash of frozen homemade soups that I made earlier.

Oh, I remember why I bought fillets the last time after reading this thread.

They make for some great Beef Wellingtons. That's one place where they pick up the flavor of the stuff they are cooked with, and make for a very tasty meal when the packet is sliced open.

Flank steak is one of my favorites, dry rubbed and quick grilled.

Stopped by Esposito's butcher shop (New York City, 9th ave and 39th or so) on the way home on Friday and picked up some top sirloin for $4.99 a lb. I would have to say it's texture was very close to fillet costing four times that, and the flavor so much better. Unless there's a great sale someplace else, I may start buying all my meat there.

As to the questions of what cut is this where you live, one website I've used for many years, and it has great information - www.askthemeatman.com

I don't understand why people like them either. Although that could be because I'm a vegetarian. ;)

Enjoy your endless run of side dishes. ;)

I have never tried it.But when I will do so I will definitely share the experience with you.

Just went to my local Asian supermarket chain (pending acquisition by a much-lager national chain) where whole tenderloins were on sale for C$5/lb and ribeye and striploin slabs were going for C$4/lb. If I had an army to feed and/or weren't about to be out of town for 1/2 the next two weeks, I'd be tempted to get into one of those.

Dunno. I always go for the ribeye or a big porterhouse, myself.

It's tender and tastes great. Unless the kitchen is going to do a CT scan to look through no matter how good a ribeye you eat, you have a good chance of having to cut through, or chew through, sinew, etc.

It is very odd how North Americans hold the pronounciation for beef and drop it for fish. I wonder if it has to do with the relative costs of each.

I think it's the common usage of *filet* as a verb. When employed as a noun, the pronunciation seems to matter to some. I also think there are those who like to simplify, and those who like to clarify. (and yes, it's a slow day here).

Having lived for a decade and a half in Alaska, I have never heard anyone say "fillit." While mostly they just use the word "clean" to describe the whole prep process (including filleting), when they do say "fillet," they pronounce it like the cut of beef ("fil-lay").

And I think Alaskans know their fish.

I love filet mignon, marinated in its own juice and a little salt. The texture, the taste - I'd rather pay more for that little piece than get a larger, cheaper cut. But I also have beef guilt so I only indulge once in awhile.

Just had to add this to this thread, had a ridiculous entree the other night at a favorite restaurant. Filet mignon, in puff pastry, topped with king crab chunks and hollandaise. I could feel my arteries hardening, and there was so much crab atop the steak that I couldn't eat all of it. Defnitely a fine way to eat a filet!

Take one bite of the Filet at Charlie Palmers in Las Vegas and you will never want to eat any other cut of meat for the rest of your life (of course you wont want to eat anywhere else for that matter)...I have been known to book last minute, one night trips to Vegas for this very reason.

The best filet we have ever had (over 80 years combined) can be found at the Brasserie Grille in the Christiana Hilton in Newark, DE!

Bandera has a Worcestershire butter they put on their filet that is exceptionally good. Their skillet cornbread is also very good :D

As a native Midwesterner who grew up in cow country on corn feed beef, the fillet mignon was never really one of my favorites. A top sirloin, KC strip or London broil were served weekly in our home. The fillet just requires too much doctoring to impart much flavor and the flavor is ordinarily the flavor of the sauce, bacon or spices and not the meat. Having said that, I wouldn't turn one down if just done simply (salt, pepper, broiled at high heat, medium rare) with some creamed spinach and a nice hearty red wine to wash it all down.