Filet Mignon

Filet Mignon Ingredients

• Filet mignon steaks: This recipe was designed to cook four filet mignon steaks, each weighing in at 6 ounces. If your cuts are notably larger, well then, that’s exciting for you. Just up the other ingredients proportionally.

• Kosher salt and pepper: Cooking a filet mignon without salt and pepper would be heresy. Notice that the salt is used in two different steps as you prepare the steak.

• Olive oil: You’ll be cooking the steak in a pan that’s good and hot, but make sure not to burn the oil, or it will turn rancid. Most olive oil has a smoke point around 375°F.

• Butter: How do steakhouses make their steaks so tasty? They use good-quality cuts of meat, for one thing. For another, they use plenty of butter.

• Garlic cloves: These garlic cloves need to be peeled, but they do not need to be minced or chopped, and in fact should not be. You can halve each for a bit more garlic flavor, but stop there.

• Rosemary sprigs: Like with the garlic, the fresh rosemary sprigs should not be chopped; leave them whole, and be sure to discard them before you serve the steaks.

Directions

Step 1: Salt the steaks

Remove the steaks from the refrigerator and sprinkle them with 1/2 teaspoon salt, then let them stand for 30 minutes.

Step 2: Prep the pan

Preheat a cast-iron skillet over high heat until it’s extremely hot, four to five minutes. Carefully add the olive oil and let it heat until it’s rippling.

Step 3: Prep the steaks

Pat the beef dry with paper towels, and season all sides of each steak with the remaining 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper.

Step 4: Cook the steak, basting with butter

Place the steaks in the skillet and cook them until a golden-brown crust forms, three to four minutes. Turn the steaks on their sides and cook them for one minute, rolling each as its edges become brown. Then turn the steaks so the uncooked side is down and add the butter, garlic and rosemary to the pan. Cook the steaks for another three to four minutes, until they spring back slightly but are soft when lightly pressed. Use a spoon to baste the steaks with butter during the last one to two minutes of cooking.

Step 5: Cook to your preferred doneness

Continue cooking the meat to your desired degree of doneness (for medium-rare, a thermometer should read 135°; medium, 140°; medium-well, 145°). Remove the steaks from the pan, discarding the garlic cloves and rosemary. Let the meat stand for five minutes before serving.