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Meat cuts · International

Beef tenderloin (fillet)

The most tender beef cut – a barely used muscle beneath the lumbar spine, source of filet mignon and chateaubriand.

AI illustration of Beef tenderloin (fillet)
AI illustration

At a glance

Cut
Hindquarter, underside of the lumbar spine near the kidneys; psoas major muscle.
Ageing
Usually wet aged in vacuum packaging, like most beef on sale.
Production
The whole boneless muscle is trimmed of fat and membranes; steaks from the centre are cut crosswise.
Use
Quick searing in a pan or on a grill, or roasting whole; the butt also for carpaccio.
Substitutes
The closest is striploin, which is fattier and less tender.

Where on the animal

Diagram: where the cut sits on beef – tenderloinBeef tenderloin (fillet): Beef – Tenderloin. An approximate diagram; butchers divide the carcass in slightly different ways from country to country.

Beef

  • Tenderloin

An approximate diagram; butchers divide the carcass in slightly different ways from country to country.

The tenderloin is the psoas major muscle, which lies beneath the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae near the kidneys and runs through the short loin and the sirloin. It does very little work in life, which makes it the most tender cut of beef; in the Czech grading it belongs to first-quality meat.

The tapering muscle is divided into the thick butt, the centre cut and the thin tail. Filet mignon and chateaubriand are cut from the centre, which is also used for beef Wellington, and tournedos, served in pairs, from the tail; the butt suits carpaccio, for example.

The meat is lean and fine-textured, so steaks are seared briefly in a pan or on a grill and larger pieces are roasted whole. The tenderloin forms the smaller part of T-bone and porterhouse steaks. It is called fillet in Britain, eye fillet in Australasia, solomillo in Spanish and Filet or Lendenbraten in German.

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Sources