Beef Tenderloin...Help!

[RobinC]

I have been trying to find beef tenderloin in the stores but seem to be missing something. I cannot find this cut anywhere. Please help me with my meat ignorance. Is this cut called by another name? Does anyone else have trouble finding beef tenderloin?

I am interested in making the Pepper-Crusted Beef Tenderloin with Horseradish Sauce from the Oct issue. Has anyone tried this yet?

[BarbaraL]

As far as I know, beef tenderloin is also called fillet of beef. It's a very large cut of beef, is usually vacuum packed and very expensive (it's often labelled filet mignon). To be sure, ask the store butcher.

According to Joy of Cooking, fillet of beef is: This choicest, most tender cut can be utlized in many ways. First, trim off fat and sinew. Loosen fat at the small or tail end and tear this off, as well as the clods of fat near the thicker end. With a sharp pointed knife, remove the thin, tough, bluish sinew underneath. To cook it whole, tuck the thin end under to equalize thickness. They go on to say that the first half of the heavy end is called the head or tenderloin; the other half is the Chateaubriand section; then other sections are the fillet steaks, the tournedos, then the filet mignons.

[Gail]

Here's what Epicurious has to say (after cross referencing from tenderloin to short loin.)

short loin


Of the major wholesale cuts of beef, this is the most tender. It lies in the middle of the back between the sirloin and the rib, and the muscles in this section do little that could toughen them. The two main muscles in the short loin are the tenderloin and the top loin. The elongated tenderloin muscle (when separated from the bone and the rest of the short loin) can be sold as tenderloin roasts (often labeled CHATEAUBRIANDS), or cut into TOURNEDOS; or FILET MIGNON steaks. The top loin muscle with the bone attached is called a CLUB STEAK. When removed from the bone, the same muscle is marketed as New York (or Kansas City ) STRIP STEAK; or DELMONICO STEAK. When the bone is left in and portions of both the tenderloin and top loin muscles are included, the short loin is the source of PORTERHOUSE STEAKS and T-BONE STEAKS. See also BEEF.


I found this out myself when I asked the butcher for beef tenderloin and he cut me some filet mignons.

[Beth Y]

Yes, the short answer is, a beef tenderloin is a filet mignon. My butcher looked at me as if "doesn't everybody know that" when I asked for a beef tenderloin to cook the "beef tenderloin with onion sauce" last month.