Meat Dishes
Fillet Steak
The most tender steak there is. Fillet (filet mignon in the US) is lean and mild, so it needs a dark crust, plenty of butter basting and a good sauce such as Béarnaise.
- Serves 2
- Prep 5 min (plus salting)
- Cook 5 minutes
- British
Know your cut: Fillet Steak
- UK name
- Fillet steak (thick slices from the middle: tournedos; the large end: chateaubriand)
- US name
- Filet mignon or beef tenderloin steak
- Where it comes from
- The psoas muscle, which runs under the backbone inside the loin. It does almost no work, so it is very tender.
- Eating quality
- Very tender and lean with a mild, buttery flavour; it benefits from butter, a sauce or a bacon wrap.
- Best cooked
- Pan-sear then finish in the oven, griddle, or reverse sear on the barbecue; 4–5 cm (1½–2 in) thick, 170–225 g (6–8 oz) each.
In France and the US "filet mignon" usually means the thin tail end or any tenderloin steak; British menus say fillet.
Method · Pan-fried
Salt the steaks. Best of all, do it the day before (or at least 45 minutes ahead): sprinkle the salt over both sides and leave them uncovered on a rack in the fridge. Short of time? Salt them just before they go on the heat instead; salting 5–30 minutes ahead leaves the surface wet, and it will not brown as well. Pat dry with kitchen paper and grind over some pepper.
Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Put an ovenproof heavy frying pan (cast iron or carbon steel) over a high heat for 4 minutes, then add the 1 tbsp oil; it is ready when it shimmers and the first wisp of smoke appears.
Lay the steaks flat and sear, turning every minute, for about 5 minutes in all until well browned on both sides, then roll them briefly on their edges.
Turn the heat down, add the butter, garlic and thyme and, as soon as the butter foams, tilt the pan and spoon it over the steaks for 1 minute.
Put the pan in the oven for 4–6 minutes, until the thermometer reads 50°C (122°F) in the middle for medium-rare.
Lift the steaks on to a warm plate or a rack to rest for 5 minutes. Keep the pan.
Quick pan sauce, while the steaks rest: pour off all but about 1 tablespoon of fat from the pan (the handle is hot from the oven: use a cloth), leaving the browned bits (and fish out the garlic and herbs). Over a medium heat cook the shallot for 2 minutes, scraping the pan. Take the pan off the heat, add the brandy (or red wine), put it back and let it bubble until almost gone. Add the stock and boil hard for 2–3 minutes until reduced by half. Stir in the cream and simmer for a minute until the sauce coats a spoon (or, off the heat, swirl in cold butter a piece at a time until glossy). Tip in the juices from the resting plate, season and spoon over the steaks.
Spoon over the pan sauce, add a pinch of flaky salt and serve with chips. (No time for the sauce? Serve Béarnaise, Peppercorn Sauce or a slice of Garlic and Herb Butter instead.)
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Quick pan sauce
The best sauce for a pan-fried steak is made in the same pan while the steak rests: it picks up the browned bits and the resting juices. It is built into the Pan-fried method above. For a griddled or barbecued steak, make it in a small frying pan with a knob of butter instead of the pan fat.
- Pour off all but 1 tbsp of fat; cook 1 finely chopped shallot for 2 minutes, scraping the pan.
- Off the heat add 2 tbsp brandy or 75 ml (5 tbsp) red wine; bubble until almost gone.
- Add 100 ml (⅓ cup + 1 tbsp) beef stock and boil until reduced by half.
- Finish with 3 tbsp double (heavy) cream, or swirl in 15 g (1 tbsp) cold butter off the heat; add the resting juices and season.
Upgrade: a spoonful of demi-glace (traditional demi-glace, or the quick version) stirred in with the stock gives extra body and gloss.
Variations
- Peppercorn. Add 1 tsp crushed black peppercorns (or green peppercorns in brine) with the shallot; brandy and cream. Full recipe: Peppercorn Sauce.
- Red wine and shallot. Use red wine, reduce it to a syrup before the stock, and finish with cold butter rather than cream.
- Diane. After the brandy stir in 1 tsp Dijon mustard and 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce; finish with cream and chives. Full recipe: Diane Sauce.
- Mustard and butter. Deglaze with water or stock, whisk in 1 tbsp Dijon, then cold butter off the heat.
Griddle and barbecue: a slice of Garlic and Herb Butter or Maître d’Hôtel Butter melting on the resting steak, Chimichurri, Steakhouse Sauce, Horseradish Cream, Blue Cheese Sauce or Béarnaise.
See also
Chef’s notes
- Take the steak off the heat at: blue 40°C (104°F) · rare 46°C (115°F) · medium-rare 50°C (122°F) · medium 55°C (131°F) · medium-well 60°C (140°F) · well done 66°C (151°F). It rises about 3–5°C (5–9°F) as it rests (more in a thick steak), reaching the ThermoWorks finished temperatures: rare 49–54°C, medium-rare 54–57°C, medium 57–63°C.
- Turning often: Harold McGee's tests, repeated by J. Kenji López-Alt at Serious Eats, found that flipping a steak every 15–30 seconds cooks it faster and more evenly than one turn; Heston Blumenthal and Fallow's Will Murray cook this way. One turn still works if you prefer bold bar marks.
- No need to bring the steak to room temperature: Serious Eats found 20 minutes on the worktop warmed the centre by less than 1°C (2°F). A dry surface matters far more.
- UK and US words: a British 'grill' is the overhead heat in the oven (an American 'broiler'); an American 'grill' is a barbecue. Under a UK grill (US broiler): heat it to high for 10 minutes, set the oiled, salted steaks on a rack 5–8 cm (2–3 in) below the element and turn every 2 minutes, checking with a thermometer.
- Food safety: the UK Food Standards Agency says whole cuts of beef can be served pink once the outside is properly seared, because bacteria sit on the surface. The US Department of Agriculture's minimum is 63°C (145°F) with a 3-minute rest, which is medium/medium-well; anything pinker is a choice. When cooking for anyone pregnant, very young, elderly or unwell, follow your national advice.
About this cut
Classic French restaurant cookery cuts its tournedos and chateaubriand from the fillet; our Tournedos Victor Hugo is one of those dishes.
In the US the whole muscle is called the tenderloin and the steaks are filets mignons (French for "dainty fillets").
How this recipe was developed
A composite of the techniques the best-known chefs and the top-rated web recipes agree on, written in our own words and checked against temperature guides.
- Turn often. Heston Blumenthal (every 15–20 seconds), Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay (every minute), Fallow’s Will Murray and Serious Eats (Harold McGee’s tests): faster, more even cooking.
- Salt well ahead or just before. J. Kenji López-Alt’s salting tests (Serious Eats); BBC Good Food also salts ahead.
- Butter, garlic and thyme baste. Gordon Ramsay, Serious Eats and BBC Good Food (Barney Desmazery).
- Pan sauce while the steak rests. Serious Eats, NYT Cooking (Melissa Clark), Bon Appétit and Gordon Ramsay’s shallot and red wine sauce all build the sauce on the fond and add the resting juices; Anne Willan’s pepper steak finishes the pan with cognac and cream.
- Reverse sear for thick steaks. Serious Eats and Cook’s Illustrated (Christopher Kimball’s magazine): low heat first, then a hard sear; ThermoWorks for target temperatures.
- Florentine T-bone. Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: pepper first, salt each side after turning.
- Griddle times. Rick Stein’s peppered rib-eye (BBC Food) and BBC Good Food’s steak timings.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 1 November 2026):
- Serious Eats (J. Kenji López-Alt): Old wives’ tales about cooking steak
- Serious Eats (J. Kenji López-Alt): Perfect pan-seared steaks
- Serious Eats (J. Kenji López-Alt): Reverse-seared steak
- Serious Eats: Pan-seared steaks with red wine pan sauce
- Serious Eats: How to make a pan sauce
- NYT Cooking: Pan-seared steak with red wine sauce
- Bon Appétit: Easy steak with pan sauce
- Gordon Ramsay: Shallot & red wine sauce (BBC Good Food)
- Gordon Ramsay: Gordon’s mix & match steak (BBC Good Food) (4.7/5, 31 ratings)
- Heston Blumenthal: Perfect steak (SBS Food)
- Jamie Oliver: How to cook the perfect steak
- Fallow (Will Murray, Jack Croft): How to cook steak to the ideal doneness (Robb Report)
- Rick Stein: Peppered rib-eye steaks with béarnaise (BBC Food, Rick Stein’s Cornwall)
- Anne Willan: Pepper steak (La Varenne, Cooking with Grandma)
- Marcella Hazan: La Fiorentina, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (book)
- Cook's Illustrated (Christopher Kimball): Pan-seared thick-cut strip steaks (reverse sear)
- ThermoWorks: Steak temperature guide
- Food Standards Agency / GOV.UK: Cooking your food
- USDA FSIS / FoodSafety.gov: Safe minimum internal temperatures
- History: Online Etymology Dictionary: sirloin; steak; beefsteak
- History: Wikisource: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911): Beefsteak Club
- History: Cambridge Historical Commission: National Cow Appreciation Day (the Porter House hotel)
- History: WEHD: Thornton’s American Glossary: porterhouse steak (1843)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.